"Only Nixon loves a coyote" seems to be the message of recent political developments in Washington sanctioning increased use of sodium cyanide devices to kill these and other predators. To be specific, President Ford recently relaxed stringent limits imposed by his predecessor in a 1972 Executive Order¹ on the field use of toxic chemicals in federal programs against coyotes and other predators on federal lands, which form a large part of the habitat of the coyote in five southwestern states. Ford's new Executive Order² demotes the prior order's goal of sharply restricting the use of chemical toxicants for the purpose of killing predatory animals by balancing it against a new policy of managing "the public lands to protect all animal resources thereon in the manner most consistent with the public trust in which such lands are held."

Like its predecessor, the new order completely prohibits the field use of chemical toxicants to kill predatory mammals and birds, on federal lands and in federal programs, but cuts back on this broad ban by authorizing "emergency use" following consultation with the Interior and Agriculture Departments, and EPA.