DEAR JOAN: In July, the state of California took a good first step in removing the deadly “second-generation” anticoagulant rat poisons from store shelves due to the documented impacts they have on wildlife.
When a hawk, owl, bobcat or mountain lion — or any other rodent predator — consumes a rodent that has been poisoned with anticoagulant rat poison, it too can bleed to death.
Unfortunately, the state’s new regulations do not go nearly far enough. New data from California Fish and Wildlife have confirmed our fears — wildlife continues to be poisoned from first- and second-generation, as well as other, rat poisons.
Pest-control companies still use second-generation anticoagulants extensively, and consumers still use first-generation anticoagulants. All of these compounds are deadly to wildlife. First-generation poisons are no less problematic than second generation. It takes more of the poison to build up in a rodent’s system, but sooner or later that poisoned rodent becomes a toxic time bomb meal for a predator.
Both first- and second-generation anticoagulants are responsible for the epidemic of mountain lion and bobcat deaths throughout the state. If these poisons do not kill an animal outright, they affect its health and survival.
Illegal marijuana-growing operations are using copious amounts of rat poison to protect their pot plants. In doing so, they are decimating the Pacific fisher population. The fisher is a very rare relative of the weasel that feeds on rodents. If this use of poison continues, Pacific fishers could very well become extinct in our lifetimes.
Many dogs and cats have also been victims of rat poison, including from a new nerve toxin, bromethalin, which has no antidote. If your pet consumes this poison, there is nothing that can be done to save it.
There are no “safe” poisons.
If you have a rodent problem, find out why they are coming to your yard, house or garage. Usually there is a source of food and water — fallen birdseed, backyard chicken feed, ivy for shelter — find it and clean it up. Often there are tiny holes in homes or garages that give rodents access. Those openings can be sealed off once the rodent is killed inside with a snap trap or electronic trap, which are the only safe rodent-control methods. These should really only be used inside a home or garage. If they are used outside, they should be used inside “bait boxes” — the kind that pest control companies put poison in — with a length of PVC tubing extending from the entryway so that songbirds or other animals do not get caught unintentionally in the snap traps.
Glue traps are inhumane and have caught songbirds, small owls, snakes and other beneficial animals.
Raptors Are The Solution and our many partners, particularly Poison Free Malibu in Southern California, are beginning to work with some interested state legislators on closing the huge loopholes in last year’s law.
As long as these poisons are used, our wildlife will continue to perish, and we will continue to kill the very animals that prey on rats.
Lisa Owens Viani, director
Raptors Are The Solution, Berkeley
DEAR LISA: Keep up the good work and let us know what we can do to help strengthen the laws.
Contact Joan Morris at jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/AskJoanMorris, and read more of her Animal Life columns at www.mercurynews.com/animal-life.
