by Jay Watson, Co-Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation
“To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering,” said Aldo Leopold, famed American conservationist-philosopher, referred to as “the father of wildlife ecology.”
In plain terms, Leopold was telling us that the more we tinker with the natural world – its wild ecosystems and checks and balances – the more harm we can cause.
We are bearing witness to this truth every day, as wildlife is being poisoned when homeowners, businesses, or exterminators choose to use anticoagulant rodenticides, also known as rat poisons, to control rodents.
Despite the claims of the pest control industry, there is no such thing as “safe” rat poison. When a hawk or bobcat eats a poisoned rat, they also become very ill, oftentimes dying of secondary poisoning.
Studies have found rat poisons in wildlife including foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and nearly every species of hawk and owl. Rat poison also kills dogs and cats as well as scavengers like raccoons, skunks, and opossums. In a 2021 study, rat poison was found in over 80% of bald eagles.
Rat poison is often used in bait situations, but the rodents do not die immediately. After eating the bait, rats and mice go back into the wild and can take more than a week to die. During that time, rodents may return to the bait station and ingest many more times the lethal dose. Poisoned rodents are more sluggish and become easier prey.
It is a slow, agonizing death for all animals exposed to rat poison, whether they consume it directly or eat a poisoned animal. Once an animal has eaten a poisoned rat – or several – the anticoagulant poisons (blood thinners) can also cause it to hemorrhage or to become weak and anemic. Anticoagulants interfere with an animal’s blood clotting mechanism. They also interfere with the immune system and in mammals, this often leads to cases of mange.
Children also accidentally ingest rodenticides — more than 10,000 every year in the United States. Rodenticides are so dangerous that they are not allowed at any New Jersey schools.
Jim Wright is an Allendale resident who has been photographing birds for several years in addition to writing a 15-year-old birdwatching column along with books on Eastern screech-owls, bald eagles, and other birds.
Four years ago, a friend arrived at Wright’s door with a great horned owl wrapped in a towel. Wright, his wife, and his friend drove the owl to The Raptor Trust in Millington. The owl died in his wife’s arms. The Raptor Trust then sent the deceased bird to a lab for a necropsy (an autopsy on an animal), which showed that the owl died from rodenticide poisoning.
Wright began working with local organizations to advocate for a new bill in New Jersey that is similar to the recent legislative changes made in California. Since 2020, California has passed a number of bills strengthening restrictions on rat poison. In September, Gov. Christopher Newsom signed additional, tighter rat poison restrictions into law. The Poison-Free Wildlife Act, or Assembly Bill 2552 (“A.B. 2552”), offers the strongest protections in the country against toxic rat poisons. The moratorium would allow for rodenticide use to protect agriculture, water supplies, and public health. A recent California Department of Fish and Wildlife study found that 88% of raptors and 95% of mountain lions tested had exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides.
Currently, New Jersey complies with the federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”) and has an added regulation about rodent baiting and who can use tamper-resistant bait boxes. But New Jersey could have much stronger rules!
“The harms of rodenticide are not on anyone’s radar,” Wright says. He and the groups he is working with, including New Jersey Conservation Foundation, recently requested a meeting with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to discuss the need for a new bill. We are awaiting the agency’s response.
“We need to get smarter about this,” says Lisa Owens-Viani, director of the California-based nonprofit Raptors Are The Solution. She led the charge in California, among other passionate activists and organizations, to pass the ramped-up legislation. “Rodenticides are a fraud that has been perpetuated on people by the industry. It is so lucrative for the companies that make these chemicals. We are putting out bait that keeps rats coming back.”
Non-toxic pest control options can help reduce the need for rodenticide and save consumers money on expensive pest control methods. Nature’s pest control experts, like owls, can also help. Rodents play a critical role in the ecosystem as food for predators and sometimes as seed dispersers for native plants. When predator populations decrease from eating poisoned rodents, the rodent populations actually increase. Poisoned rats are also more likely to spread diseases to humans.
This vicious cycle can be addressed in this state we’re in if we come together to pass stronger rules about commercial and consumer use of rat poisons. State agencies, environmental organizations, and passionate bird-lovers like Wright all have a place in the work that must be done.
As we watch poison travel up the food chain from small rodents to large predators, Leopold’s wisdom rings true, 75 years later.
For a comprehensive guide to non-toxic rat control, lists of harmful rat poisons to avoid, and other tips on how to become an advocate in your town, download the Rats Activist Toolkit at www.raptorsarethesoulution.org/take-action/. Please visit www.raptorsarethesolution.org and www.hungryowls.org to support groups doing important work to ban rodenticides all over the U.S. To learn how to contact your local legislators to encourage them to give a hoot about rodenticide, visit https://njleg.state.nj.us/#findLegislator.
To learn more about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
