A 14-year-old boy named Canyon Mansfield was walking his loyal dog Casey near his home in Idaho when the pooch was unexpectedly killed, leaving the whole family heartbroken. It happened when the teenager noticed something sticking half a foot out of the ground in the woods. As soon as Mansfield touched it, he heard something pop and “siss”. Then, orange powder shot out, making Mansfield jumped back in shock. The next thing he knew, Casey the dog was lying on the ground and he could see something was terribly wrong with him…

“[I] saw this red froth coming from his mouth and his eyes turning glassy,” said the boy. As it turned out, the dog was killed by an M44, a US Government approved cyanide trap that is aimed to kill coyotes. It is known that only between 2006 and 2012, over 3,400 animals were mistakenly killed by M44s – and most people are not even aware of the existence of these devices.

“My son Canyon, who witnessed it all, is really struggling with what happened,” Theresa Mansfield, the boy’s mom, told The Dodo. “It was above our house. It makes me not feel safe. I feel like I had terrorism in my own backyard, with my own government.”

(h/t: thedodo)

A 14-year-old boy named Canyon Mansfield was walking his dog Casey when the doggie was unexpectedly killed

It happened when the teenager noticed something sticking half a foot out of the ground in the woods

As soon as Mansfield touched it, he heard something pop and orange powder shot out

Mansfield jumped back in shock and Casey was lying on the ground showing something was terribly wrong

“[I] saw this red froth coming from his mouth and his eyes turning glassy”

The dog was killed by an M44, a US Government approved cyanide trap that is aimed to kill coyotes

“It was above our house…. I feel like I had terrorism in my own backyard, with my own government”