Update:
March 30, 2026: The Minister of Health issued a statement announcing, “to address multi-million dollars worth of damage from the recent Richardson Ground Squirrel (RGS) infestation, the Government of Canada is authorizing a time-limited and controlled emergency registration of Strychnine.” This decision to authorize an emergency registration of strychnine pertains to Alberta and Saskatchewan and came about after industry and provincial lobbying.
On April 20, 2026 a coalition of animal and environmental protection groups issued a joint statement, denouncing the decision.
2024: Along with many other animal advocacy and environmental organizations across Canada, we have submitted a joint Notice of Objection to Health Canada and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency as of early May 2024. In March of 2024, Health Canada announced a ban on the use of Strychnine, which took full effect in September 2024. Unfortunately, they decided to continue to allow the issuance and use of Compound 1080, another deadly poison. We are hoping they will reconsider this decision that continues to harm and kill many species of wildlife.
Who allowed this to happen?
Most Canadians cannot believe that the federal government still allows wild animals to be poisoned – to suffer an excruciating death. The federal government licenses the poisons. Health Canada’s Minister oversees the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (now the Pesticides Regulatory Directorate), which regulates and approves the use of poisons such as Compound 1080, which in March of 2024, was approved for continued use despite Strychnine being banned.
The provinces apply to use them. It is provincial governments and pest control companies who apply to use these cruel substances.
The poisons are meant to kill animals deemed a problem by farmers – coyotes, wolves and bears (seen as a threat to sheep and calves), or squirrels and gophers (who may dig holes in fields where farmed animals are kept).
Currently only Alberta continues to use Compound 1080.
The poisons are meant to kill animals who come into conflict with farmers – coyotes, wolves and bears (who may predate on sheep and calves), or squirrels and gophers (who may dig holes in fields where farmed animals are kept, putting farmed animals at risk of leg injuries).
Ban these pesticides:
Animal Alliance and the Animal Protection Party of Canada want Health Canada permanently to ban these poisons.
Both Saskatchewan and Alberta used Compound 1080 for years, and Alberta is the only one that continues to do so. Meanwhile, both provinces have been temporarily authorized to use strychnine until (at least) November 2027. But killing “problem wildlife” does not work.
For example, as the May 2017 Scientific American’s article, Why Killing Coyotes Doesn’t Make Livestock Safer, demonstrates:
…there is no clear evidence that lethal control works to reduce human-predator conflict. In fact, it can even make the problem worse. At the same time, research shows that predators play key roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Why would predation increase after predators are killed? When pack animals such as coyotes, dingoes and wolves are killed, the social structure of their packs breaks down. Female coyotes become more likely to breed and their pups are more likely to survive, so their numbers may actually increase. Packs generally protect territories, so breaking up a pack allows new animals to come in, raising the population. In addition, some new arrivals may opportunistically prey on livestock, which can increase predation rates…
[A] 2016 analysis reviewed studies that compared lethal and nonlethal strategies for controlling livestock predation… The review found that nonlethal methods generally reduced livestock predation more effectively, and that predation actually temporarily increased after use of some lethal methods.
Non-lethal preventive approaches are more effective, cost efficient, humane and better for the environment.
In both Canada and the U.S., there have been documented Compound 1080 poisoning of wolves and non-target species, including pets. Because of the time lapse between ingesting this poison and the onset of sickness, as well as the incidence of secondary poisonings, the actual body count is likely much higher than can be documented.
This is supported by the findings in Wolf Toxicant Use Records (2005 to 2010), acquired by Animal Alliance. The records showed that 146 wolves died from the poison. However, many non-target species also died – 57 ravens, 34 coyotes, 8 red fox, 12 magpies, 2 dogs and 1 bald eagle. There were also an additional 150 incidents where baits were taken but no carcass was found – classified as “Outcome Unknown”
Project Coyote is an organization based in the U.S. that provides information about non-lethal solutions to reduce conflicts between farmers and wildlife.
The science is clear and irrefutable:
- Killing animals to reduce their populations has been an unmitigated failure despite centuries of trying.
- Reducing coyote numbers, even temporarily, does not reduce predation on farmed animals. The best methods to protect farmed animals are all non-lethal.