I try not to do bummer posts, but this was a good write up on the lobbying going on by rat poison companies against the efforts of animal rescues and environmental protection groups.

There are efforts going on in many cities/states/countries to ban these poisons that hurt more than just rodents. The effects are horrendous on the rodents and those who eat the poisoned rodents.

You might want to see what is being done where you live on the campaign against SGARs (second generation rodenticides) to push them to save your local wildlife.

I’ve seen so many photos and videos of raptors, foxes, weasels, eagles, and more that have lost their lives. The cruelty and ignorance needs to stop. I’ll spare you guys the pics, but this post is worth a read.

From Save Arlington Wildlife

I want to address something pest companies have been bringing up a lot in an attempt to dissuade from a state prohibition on anticoagulant rodenticides. Namely, they really talk up the angle that anticoagulants have an “antidote” that can help cure exposed animals and people.

For the unfamiliar, anticoagulants work by inhibiting the production of Vitamin K in the body. Vitamin K helps our blood clot. Hence, anticoagulants stop blood from clotting. This is why many victims–from people to pets to wildlife-- die by internal bleeding issues (in their brains, in their guts, etc.).

So, both in human and animal medicine, patients are administered Vitamin K when they are suffering from anticoagulant poisoning.

Here’s the thing though that the pest companies conveniently leave out of the narrative:

Vitamin K can only be an effective treatment if the anticoagulant exposure the patient suffers from has been caught relatively early enough and dependent on how much ARs (and how many different compounds) have been in the person’s or animal’s system. Often, by the time an animal arrives at the hospital, the poisons have done too much damage to their bodies and has accumulated in such high levels that no amount of Vitamin K can reverse it.

Let’s be clear: people have DIED from these poisons too–also bleeding out–where the Vitamin K didn’t work.

Even in cases where Vitamin K has worked–it almost always requires multi-week if not multi- month daily doses. And usually the people or animals need blood or plasma transfusions-- sometimes numerous ones–because of all the blood loss they are suffering in the interim.

Remember the case of the Great Horned Owl family on Cape Cod in 2021 treated by New England Wildlife Centers–where nearly the ENTIRE FAMILY was obliterated by these poisons? Both parents and two babies died (one was bleeding out of every orifice and neither Vitamin K or an emergency transfusion with a resident owl could save him–see photo from NEWC). Another owlet did survive. But she required NINE MONTHS of daily Vitamin K doses until her blood would clot on its own again and she could be released.

And yet, pest companies and their lobbying associations disingenuously frame this antidote a one-time panacea–like a magical EpiPen or anti-venom where you inject the animal once and-- voila!–they are cured and any bodily damage they have incurred is immediately and completely reversed.

It’s bullshit.

Perhaps when these poisons were a rarity, and animals had modest levels in their systems, Vitamin K could help. But with these poisons so ubiquitous and so many compounds of them everywhere–it’s not as helpful.

Let’s also be clear that really, when a pet has been

poisoned by ANY rat poison–not just anticoagulants–early detection is the surest way to recovery. The beginning treatment is the same regardless of the type of poison. That is–induce vomiting, administer activated charcoal to absorb any remnants of the poison still in the digestive system, and then offer electrolytes and supplemental fluids for supportive care. The problem is, of course, many times we don’t know if an animal has been poisoned until this point has been passed.

I will concede the pest companies on one point though. ALL poisons are bad and none of them really should be in widespread or routine circulation. ALL poisons kill animals with first- hand exposure (which is more common than people think–we’ve all seen the photos and footage of broken open bait stations). And ALL poisons do work up the food chain or cause impacts in some secondary consumers at least to an extent, despite popular belief that some poisons do not.

Tufts Wildlife Clinic found the neurotoxin Bromethalin in the bodies of birds of prey and it was also implicated in the death of another Massachusetts Bald Eagle roughly around the same time of MK’s passing. It has also been found in the bodies of mountain lions.

Cholecalciferol, or as it’s more commonly known, Vitamin D–is often promoted as a poison that doesn’t cause secondary impacts. This is false. While there was one small and short-term study on barn owls fed Vit D-poisoned mice where the owls showed no impact, studies on other kinds of predators–like dogs–have shown secondary impact when fed mice or rats poisoned by Vit D. It’s even been theorized the rise in use of Vit D is contributing to coyote deaths (another canid with similar physiology as dogs) in California.

As someone with a science background, a lack of peer review research doesn’t mean something is safe. It just means it hasn’t been studied. And I have no desire to have our wildlife and pets be guinea pigs as we slot in one poison for another.

This is why Save Arlington Wildlife does not endorse or encourage the use of ANY rat poison and discourages their use overall. That is why businesses that sign our poison-free pledge and get to have SAW’s sign on their store windows have committed to no rat poisons.