Please don’t use poisons to control pests!

Earlier this week a much loved Bald Eagle known as MK was found on the ground in the Arlington cemetery where she and her mate KZ live and have nested. Weak and unable to fly, she was brought to the New England Wildlife Center’s hospital on Cape Cod, where their veterinary team worked tirelessly to save her life. MK had been sickened by rat poison after eating one or more rodents that had ingested the poison and sadly she died on Tuesday night.

Rat poison (anticoagulant rodenticide) kills by preventing blood from clotting. Animals that ingest rat poison or eat animals that ingested rat poison die a slow and painful death from internal bleeding or they die from injuries such as cuts that won’t clot – causing the animal to bleed to death.

When homeowners, business owners or pest control companies put out rat poison to kill unwanted mice or rats, those “pests” can take up to a day to die, while in the meantime remaining in the food chain where they are all too often eaten by birds of prey such as eagles, hawks and owls or other animals such as foxes, coyotes, bobcats and even house cats.

About a week before MK was found sick on the ground in Arlington, a Barred Owl was rescued from Faneuil Hall in Boston where it had been spotted bleeding. This owl is being treated for rat poisoning at Cape Ann Wildlife in Gloucester. Twice last year, Jane Newhouse of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford treated young foxes that had eaten poisoned prey – thankfully both survived and were returned to the wild.

In a recent study of Red-tailed Hawks in their care, Tufts Wildlife Clinic found that 100% of them had been exposed to some level of anticoagulant rodenticides! You can read about that here: https://now.tufts.edu/2020/09/16/understanding-risks-rodent-poisons-birds-prey?fbclid=IwAR1inWhl-3IBxV26j9RVNyj_xEQ2QDw8rc35OUMM9_8d7kInSI3OKgRKQJg

A bill seeking to limit the use of anticoagulant rodenticides passed in the Massachusetts House and will hopefully be taken up by the Senate. Here’s some background on that: https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/regional/2022/09/22/rodent-poisons-kill-wildlife-limited-rodenticides-sgars-massachusetts-owls-eagles/8028641001/

Our very talented photographer friend, Brad Dinerman, took the above photo of MK. Brad has been photographing MK and KZ for a number of years and was very kind to let us use this photo.

Thank you for reading, and please pass this information on to others. The more informed we all are about the dangers of using poisons to control mice and rats, the better chance we have of protecting the wildlife we all love.