Even river otters have been poisoned, a sign these chemicals may be seeping into waterways.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still seeing too many animals being victims of rat poison,\u201d said Lisa Owens-Viani, director of Berkeley-based nonprofit \u200aRaptors Are the Solution.<\/p>\n
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How we got here<\/p>\n
Rats are a big problem in Southern California. And people resort to rat poison to solve the problem, placing it in baits and traps. The problem with that is wild animals also fall for the lures. Or, hungry predators feast on the poison-filled rats.<\/p>\n
Anticoagulants were one of the final blows to L.A.\u2019s most famous mountain lion, P-22. He was sickened by such rodenticides likely after eating prey that had ingested them. Disoriented and ill, the beloved puma then wandered into the road and was struck by a car just south of his home in Griffith Park. P-22 later died<\/a> from his injuries.<\/p>\n Famed mountain lion P-22 suffered from mange linked to rat poisons and died after being struck by a vehicle near Griffith Park. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Center for Biological Diversity<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Why legislation hasn\u2019t solved it<\/p>\n For more than two decades, California has passed laws to limit the use of certain pesticides. Starting in 2020, the state passed a series of legislation banning some of the most toxic types:<\/p>\n The Ecosystem Protection Act of 2020 (AB1788) placed a moratorium on all second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, which are stronger and last in animal tissue longer than earlier types.\u00a0The California Ecosystem Protection Act of 2023 and the Poison-Free Wildlife Act of 2024 expanded that moratorium to first generation anticoagulant rodenticides, including chlorophacinone and warfarin, which are older versions of rat poison that take longer to build up in the body.<\/p>\n However, there are exemptions in those laws, including the use of such rodenticides in agriculture, certain public health settings, such as hospitals, and other sensitive settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Owens-Viani thinks that\u2019s a big reason why the number of poisonings continue to be high. <\/p>\n \u201cWe’re not seeing the decreasing trend that we had hoped for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A bobcat sickened by rodenticides is cared for at Simi Valley-based wildlife rescue Wildlife Care of Southern California. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Anna Reams<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Wildlife Care of Southern California<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Jonathan Evans, the Environmental Health Legal Director for the Center for Biological Diversity<\/a>, noted that some of the state\u2019s best protections against rat infestations \u2014 great-horned owls, hawks and other raptors \u2014 are also dying at some of the most alarming rates from rat poisons.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of these animals are some of our best rodent control mechanisms. Like these animals feed on rats and mice and can do it very efficiently,\u201d Evans said. \u201cWe really should be looking at figuring out why we still have high levels [of poisonings] and what we can do to close the loopholes and make rodent control more ecologically effective.”<\/p>\n Why the problem could get worse<\/p>\n There are also gaps in the data, meaning the real numbers of poisonings are likely far higher, Evans said.<\/p>\n As part of its methods to calculate poisoning rates, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has to analyze dead carcasses that often have to be submitted to them by the public, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of these animals that die of rodenticide poisonings are going to die out in the woods where nobody finds them,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n A mountain lion photographed with a motion sensor camera in the Verdugo Mountains overlooking the city lights of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n And now, the state\u2019s Department of Pesticide Regulation is considering<\/a> rolling back many of these protections by allowing more than 100,000 new locations, including grocery stores, restaurants and even parks, to use most toxic rat poisons.<\/p>\n Six lawmakers who helped craft the 2024 moratorium on these chemicals sent a letter<\/a> to the agency earlier this year asking them to rescind the proposal.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how you can help protect wildlife\u00a0For one, don\u2019t use rodenticides in your yard. Death by anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning is painful and slow \u2014 these poisons cause species to slowly bleed out from the inside, with signs in hawks and other raptors often being blood seeping from their beaks and eyes. Larger mammals, such as mountain lions and coyotes, can also develop mange as a result of the poisons weakening their immune systems.<\/p>\n
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Securing your trash, pet food and even bird feeders are other important ways to keep rats (and unwanted wildlife) from your home. Evans noted there are also new technologies, such as fertility control, electric traps and improved methods of fortifying buildings from rats. You can find additional resources for wildlife-safe rodent control from the Center for Biological Diversity and Raptors are the Solution at SafeRodentControl.org<\/a> or here<\/a>.
And if you do come across wild animal you suspect has been poisoned, report it to your local wildlife rescue agency or animal control office, as well as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife<\/a> at WHLab@wildlife.ca.gov<\/a> or (916) 358-2790.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you have a rat problem, you need to listen to this Rat poison is harming other wildlife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[23439,15628,2356,2354,182364,33627,78164,46612,79,201],"class_list":["post-371775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-anticoagulant","tag-bobcat","tag-california","tag-mountain-lion","tag-p22","tag-pesticide","tag-rat-poison","tag-rodenticide","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}