An Eastern Idaho couple has sued the U.S. government a year after a predator-killing trap that federal workers mistakenly placed near their home doused their 14-year-old son, Canyon, with cyanide and killed their dog.

Mark and Theresa Mansfield, of the Pocatello area, filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Idaho.

“We’re filing it because we want justice and we want to continue to make people aware of this (issue),” Theresa said.

The Mansfields are seeking more than $75,000 in economic damages and more than $75,000 for pain and suffering.

In the months following the incident, Theresa said they spent thousands of dollars for medical tests and treatments to determine if their son was OK, and they lost wages in the process.

They’ve never received any reimbursement from those responsible, she said. In addition, they lost their hunting dog, a 3-year-old Labrador, who was worth about $8,000, but was considered priceless to them, she said.

The Mansfields son, Canyon, then 14, was playing with the dog last year when he triggered the trap that the U.S. Department of Agriculture placed to kill coyotes. The dog started convulsing and then died.

Canyon had trouble sleeping for a month after the event and experienced vomiting and headaches. And the memory of watching his dog die has stayed with him over the past year.

“Whenever I think of that hill or hear the word ‘cyanide’ I think of that moment when (the dog) was freaking out and didn’t know what was going on,” Canyon told the Journal earlier this year. “That will probably stay with me my entire life. Every time I hear the word ‘cyanide’ it will trigger that memory and will be something I’ll never really get rid of.”

The devices, called M-44s, are embedded in the ground and look like lawn sprinklers but spray cyanide when they are set off. They are meant to protect livestock but sometimes kill pets and injure people. They killed about 12,500 coyotes in 2016, mostly in the U.S. West.

The traps drew increased scrutiny after The Associated Press reported that the teen was injured months after the government decided to stop using the devices on federal lands in Idaho. U.S. officials have said the cyanide trap was placed in error.

They said several months after the incident that they would expand a review of the traps, which are still used in other states. They also issued guidelines requiring federal workers to notify nearby residents of the devices’ placement.

Todd Grimm, Idaho director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, didn’t return a call Tuesday seeking comment on the lawsuit.

“While playing and throwing a toy for his dog,” the lawsuit said, the boy “noticed a pipe protruding from the ground that he thought looked like a sprinkler pipe. When he reached down and touched the pipe, it exploded with a loud bang.”

The lawsuit says an orange substance covered the boy’s clothing and got in his left eye and that he used snow to wipe off the substance. The boy then saw his dog convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

He ran home to get his mother, but when they returned the dog had died.

Since the incident, the Mansfields and others have been pushing for change through lawsuits and proposed legislation. Many of them would like to see M-44s banned.

But Theresa is frustrated that few changes have occurred over the last year. She says they still don’t know what the long-term effects will be for their son and she worries that the next child won’t be so lucky.

She hopes the lawsuit they filed Monday will not only lead to some compensation for her family, but also continue to shed light on an important issue.

“(We want to) continue to bring awareness to cyanide bombs,” Theresa said, adding that she wants people to keep fighting for change. “If we don’t keep fighting, (they may put them) back behind all of our houses.”

In a separate lawsuit by environmental and animal-welfare groups, U.S. officials in March agreed to complete a study on how two predator-killing poisons could be affecting federally protected species.

The settlement requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to complete consultations with the Environmental Protection Agency by the end of 2021 on the poisons that federal workers use to protect livestock on rural lands. One of the poisons is the cyanide used in M-44s.

REXBURG — The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is searching for whoever shot a young moose with an arrow in what authorities are calling an attempted poaching or a malicious wounding.

The moose was found near the Teton Lakes Golf Course in Rexburg on Wednesday with an arrow sticking out of its head.

Fish and Game personnel were able to sedate the moose and remove the arrow.

“Although injured, biologists thought the animal’s chances of survival were best if released on site, rather than transported to another location,” said a Fish and Game news release.

Fish and Game also noted that it appeared the animal had received other recent arrow shots to the head.

Gregg Losinski, regional conservation educator for Idaho Fish and Game, said the wounds appear to have been inflicted recently, according to the Associated Press. Moose hunting season in the area ended Nov. 23.

Conservation officers are asking for the public’s assistance in locating the individual or individuals responsible for the wounding. Anybody with information is asked to call either the Citizens Against Poaching hotline at 1-800-632-5999 or District Conservation Officer Andrew Sorenson at 208-390-0632.

BOISE — Authorities have located an Idaho Department of Fish and Game trailer that was stolen last month.

According to the agency, the trailer was recovered in Utah and the suspect has been identified. However, the suspect’s identity has not been released to the public.

The trailer and its contents, which were worth more than $100,000, were stolen from the Fish and Game headquarters in Boise on April 8. The trailer was being returned to Boise on Tuesday.

Fish and Game officials said the suspect dumped GPS wildlife tracking collars during the getaway, which left a trail leading to a remote Utah canyon.

“He was like Johnny Appleseed, dropping stuff as he went along his route,” Fish and Game spokesman Evin Oneale told the Associated Press.

Besides several dozen collars ranging in value from $500 to $2,000, the trailer also contained 100-foot-long nets used to capture deer and elk. It also contained tranquilizer dart guns and ear tag supplies, according to the Associated Press.

Most of the items appeared to still be in the trailer, but officials will have to do an inventory to see if anything is missing.

In a separate case, Fish and Game officials have also announced that they have identified two suspects in a poaching case who are believed to have illegally killed at least one chukar at the Boise Wildlife Management Area in March.

Last week, the agency released photos of the suspects.

In the photos, one suspect is carrying a shotgun and a cleaned chukar hanging from his belt, 46 days after chukar season closed. The photos were taken during the timeframe when the Boise River Wildlife Management Area was closed to all public entry to protect wintering big game animals.

However, the agency has not released the suspected poachers’ identities.

For the first time this year, state officials found a live quagga mussel on a boat in the state of Idaho.

According to the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, a mussel-infested boat was intercepted and impounded at the U.S. Highway 83 inspection station near the Idaho/Nevada border.

The boat’s owners spent the past three months at the quagga- and zebra-mussel infested Lake Havasu and were traveling to Alberta, Canada, when the boat was intercepted.

Currently, the watercraft was put under an ISDA hold order and is under quarantine at the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office. The boat will be held up to 30 days while it is being decontaminated. Decontamination will include a high-pressure, high-temperature wash of the exterior and trailer and a hot-water wash and flush of plumbing, bilge and live wells.

This is the third fouled vessel identified by ISDA’s Invasive Species Program this year. However, the other two boats were carrying dead mussels.

The inspection stations are designed to help prevent the spread of the invasive quagga mussel into Idaho irrigation reservoirs. Since 2009, ISDA inspections have identified nearly 165 fouled watercraft carrying zebra or quagga mussels, including 19 watercraft in 2016.

Quagga and zebra mussels have already wreaked havoc on waterways in the Great Lakes region and the Southwest. The invasive species latch onto boats and boat trailers, hitching a ride from one waterway to another.

Once established in a lake, river or stream, there is no known way to eradicate them, and they can have a devastating effect on pressurized irrigation systems that are provided water from the state’s numerous reservoirs.

According to a press release by Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, quagga mussel infestation could lead to nearly $100 million in lost economic activity and cause tens of millions of dollars in damage to our dams, irrigation pipes and other vital infrastructure.

So far, the Pacific Northwest has not had any quagga mussel infestations, and government agencies across the state are trying to keep it that way.

Earlier this month, the Idaho Legislature’s joint budget committee approved a $3.1 million increase in funding for the ISDA’s boat inspection program.

Erpelding sponsored a bill, HB 211, that includes an $8 increase in the out-of-state boat tag fee to fund up to three new boat checkpoints throughout the state. Under this legislation, which Erpelding expects to be enacted into law this week, the in-state fee remains unchanged at $22.

In Southeast Idaho, officials with the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District requested the county’s commissioners for a grant of $10,000 to help maintain inspection stations at various irrigation reservoirs in Franklin County.

The county provided funding last year for a similar request, and the commissioners voted to provide the requested funds again this year.

Many ISDA boat inspection stations have already opened for the season: U.S. Highway 93, Cotterell, Malad, Cedars (Interstate 90, westbound) and Rose Lake (State Highway 3, southbound).

The Bruneau and Marsing stations will open today. A total of 19 stations will be open for the 2017 season. Additionally, ISDA will be operating roving stations at locations around the state.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On his first full day in office, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued an order Thursday reversing a last-minute action by the Obama administration to ban lead ammunition and fish tackle used on national wildlife refuges.

Gun-rights supporters condemned the earlier order — issued a day before Obama left office Jan. 20 — as nakedly political. The order was intended to protect birds from lead poisoning, the Obama administration said.

Zinke, a former Montana congressman and avid hunter, said the new order would increase hunting, fishing and recreation opportunities on lands managed by Fish and Wildlife Service.

In Southeast Idaho, these lands include the Minidoka, Camas, Grays Lake and Bear Lake national wildlife refuges. 

The order reverses a decision by the Obama administration to phase out use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on wildlife refuges by 2022.

Zinke, who rode to work on a horse Thursday as a sign of solidarity with U.S. Park Police, said the hunting order and another order directing agencies to identify areas where recreation and fishing can be expanded were intended to boost outdoor recreation in all its forms.

“Outdoor recreation is about both our heritage and our economy,” he said in a statement. “Between hunting, fishing, motorized recreation, camping and more, the industry generates thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity.”

Over the past eight years, hunting and recreation enthusiasts have seen trails closed and dramatic decreases in access to public lands across the board, Zinke said. “It worries me to think about hunting and fishing becoming activities for the land-owning elite. This package of secretarial orders will expand access for outdoor enthusiasts and also make sure the community’s voice is heard.”

Environmental groups slammed the new directive on lead ammunition, arguing that spent lead casings cause poisoning in 130 species of birds and other animals.

Switching to nontoxic ammunition should be “a no-brainer” to save the lives of thousands of birds and other wildlife and to “prevent hunters and their families from being exposed to toxic lead and protect our water,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity.

Evans called it ironic that one of the first actions by Zinke — a self-described champion of hunters and anglers — “leads to poisoning of game and waterfowl eaten by those same hunting families.”

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Zinke’s order “represents an important check on executive abuse and reverses what was a deliberate attack on Americans’ fundamental rights and privileges” by the Obama administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On his first full day in office, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued an order Thursday reversing a last-minute action by the Obama administration to ban lead ammunition and fish tackle used on national wildlife refuges.

Gun-rights supporters condemned the earlier order — issued a day before Obama left office Jan. 20 — as nakedly political. The order was intended to protect birds from lead poisoning, the Obama administration said.

Zinke, a former Montana congressman and avid hunter, said the new order would increase hunting, fishing and recreation opportunities on lands managed by Fish and Wildlife Service.

In Southeast Idaho, these lands include the Minidoka, Camas, Grays Lake and Bear Lake national wildlife refuges. 

The order reverses a decision by the Obama administration to phase out use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on wildlife refuges by 2022.

Zinke, who rode to work on a horse Thursday as a sign of solidarity with U.S. Park Police, said the hunting order and another order directing agencies to identify areas where recreation and fishing can be expanded were intended to boost outdoor recreation in all its forms.

“Outdoor recreation is about both our heritage and our economy,” he said in a statement. “Between hunting, fishing, motorized recreation, camping and more, the industry generates thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity.”

Over the past eight years, hunting and recreation enthusiasts have seen trails closed and dramatic decreases in access to public lands across the board, Zinke said. “It worries me to think about hunting and fishing becoming activities for the land-owning elite. This package of secretarial orders will expand access for outdoor enthusiasts and also make sure the community’s voice is heard.”

Environmental groups slammed the new directive on lead ammunition, arguing that spent lead casings cause poisoning in 130 species of birds and other animals.

Switching to nontoxic ammunition should be “a no-brainer” to save the lives of thousands of birds and other wildlife and to “prevent hunters and their families from being exposed to toxic lead and protect our water,” said Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity.

Evans called it ironic that one of the first actions by Zinke — a self-described champion of hunters and anglers — “leads to poisoning of game and waterfowl eaten by those same hunting families.”

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Zinke’s order “represents an important check on executive abuse and reverses what was a deliberate attack on Americans’ fundamental rights and privileges” by the Obama administration.

A change in U.S. House rules making it easier to transfer millions of acres of federal public lands to states is worrying hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts across the West who fear losing access.

Martin Hackworth, executive director of Sharetrails.org/BlueRibbon Coalition, which supports responsible use of public lands and waters for all recreationists, believes transferring such properties to states would be a terrible mistake.

“I may really disagree with the way federal lands are managed, (but as long as they are under) federal control, they still belong to everybody in the U.S.,” he said, adding that if they are transferred to states, that will no longer be true.

Lawmakers recently passed a rule eliminating a significant budget hurdle and written so broadly that it includes national parks.

President Donald Trump’s pick for Interior secretary, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, voted for the rule change as did many other Republicans. The Senate would have to weigh in on public land transfers as well.

The rule passed by the House defines federal land that could be given to states as “any land owned by the United States, including the surface estate, the subsurface estate, or any improvements thereon.”

About a million square miles of public land is managed by the federal government, mostly in 12 Western states, according to the Congressional Research Service. Some state lawmakers in recent years have made failed efforts to wrest control of those lands, mainly to reduce obstacles to accessing resources such as timber, natural gas and oil, said Boise State University professor and public lands policy expert John Freemuth.

U.S. lawmakers have the authority to transfer those lands to states. But Outdoor recreationists fear states would then sell the land to private entities that would end public access.

“Anybody who uses them for any kind of outdoor activity — snowmobiling, mountain biking, hunters, all that — they’re very alarmed by all this,” Freemuth said. “The loss of access that this could lead to.”

In Idaho, a variety of outdoor enthusiasts are planning a rally on the south steps of the Idaho Capitol at 11 a.m. March 4 to show their support for keeping public lands public.

“We want to see hunters and hikers; climbers and bird-watchers; mountain bikers and OHV owners. We want to see everybody who spends time in the outdoors,” Rob Thornberry, Idaho representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said in a news release. “Idaho’s public lands are a treasure, and we want show our support for them.”

Thornberry hopes the rally will dissuade state lawmakers from pursuing any public lands in the future.

But others want states to take over federal lands.

Lawmakers in Utah have backed a resolution urging the state to be prepared to sue the U.S. government if Washington leaders don’t start handing over federal land to the state.

Members of a House natural resources committee on Friday approved the proposal, despite concern from one lawmaker that it could be costly and hurt the environment.

The proposal previously included stricter language, stipulating that if Congress or the White House do not make major moves to hand over control of public lands by December, then the state should appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Changes to the now-softened proposal included removing the December deadline.

The sponsor, Orem Republican Rep. Keven Stratton, says he made changes because he thinks the Republican-controlled Congress and White House may be willing to hand over the land to Utah.

But Hackworth doesn’t think states, which already struggle to fund schools, prisons and other infrastructure, could afford to maintain the properties or deal with the frequent legal challenges that come with them.

“A well-funded lawsuit could put a state out of business,” Hackworth said, adding that states could be forced to settle cases under unfavorable terms or even sell transferred lands, which could cut off public access entirely.

Doug Sayer, chief business officer of Premier Technology Inc. in Blackfoot, agrees that states can’t afford to maintain such lands. The cost of fighting a couple of wildfires during a dry year will prove it, he said.

He also feels that there is a real risk that the lands could eventually be sold.

“Access could be lost, and there are many of us who would lose the opportunity to enjoy these wild places,” Sayer said.

He believes it would be better for the federal government and its agencies to work closer with states. Modifying current management plans could mitigate some of the reasons people want the transfers to take place, he said.

“There needs to be a balance in this land mosaic, access can also be lost when federal lands are turned into national monuments,” Sayer said.

Whit Fosburgh, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which works to guarantee places to hunt and fish, was irked that the House approved a rule that he said essentially allows federal public land to be given away as if it had no value.

Still, he’s inclined to excuse Zinke on his House vote favoring transfers because of his record being “very solid on these public lands issues.”

Zinke has a track record of opposing public land transfers. Last summer, he resigned as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, which favors such transfers.

“The congressman has never voted to sell or transfer federal lands and he maintains his position against the sale or transfer of federal lands,” Heather Swift, a Zinke spokeswoman, said in an email.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, also voted for the rule easing transfers. But Simpson was also the driver of a 2015 bill that created three wilderness areas in Idaho after he got ranchers, recreationists and environmental groups to back the plan after a 15-year effort.

The possibility that former president Barack Obama would designate a much larger area as a national monument is widely believed to have led to the bill passed by the House and Senate.

“There is no disputing Congressman Simpson is a supporter of public lands,” Nikki Wallace, a spokeswoman for Simpson, wrote in an email.

Still, she pointed out that many rural communities are surrounded by or interface with federal lands, and there are times when small land transfers would make sense. For instance, if a rural town needs a small piece of BLM land near a highway to develop a school bus turnaround, she writes that non-controversial legislation should be able to accomplish that.

Wallace notes that Congress would still have the ability to look at the intent of land proposals and consider the impacts to public lands.

Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, also supported the change in House rules.

Freemuth says that even with a rule change, land transfers would face significant challenges.

“Whatever Zinke says early will affect those attempts,” Freemuth said.