Call of the Wild

Ranchers name their poison

A mortal enemy of the $70 billion American livestock business is the wild coyote. Ranchers claim that last year alone predators--mostly coyotes--marauding from Montana to Texas devoured stray livestock worth $200 million. They have tried fencing off their land, trapping the animals and even shooting them from low-flying airplanes. But ranchers argue these methods always proved unrealistic, inefficient or too expensive. The most effective means of controlling the predators was to scatter animal carcasses laced with a strong poison across pastureland.

For decades, the most widely used poison was a chemical known as Compound 1080. In 1972, however, the Environmental Protection Agency prohibited its use on the grounds that the chemical was not only decimating the coyote population but also destroying untold numbers of dogs, foxes, birds and other animals that happened to eat the tainted meat. Livestock herders, who expect that the Reagan Administration may be less concerned about those environmental considerations than its predecessors, are now asking the EPA to reverse the ban on Compound 1080.

Last week the ranchers loudly argued their case at EPA hearings in Denver and outside Washington, B.C. Said Donald Meike, board chairman of the National Wool Growers Association: "Every method of counting shows an increased loss of sheep." But John Grandy IV, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, contended: "Returning to 1080 would bring back the specter of mass, nonselective killing of animals."

Although the amount of money involved is not astronomical, both environmentalists and businessmen are closely watching the case for an early sign of Administration policy. Reagan officials have been promising that the new Washington rule makers will consider both the costs and benefits of regulations in deciding issues like the outlawing of Compound 1080. The battle concerning a coyote poison is thus turning into a conflict between businessmen and environmentalists over the role of Government regulation.

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