Share this Post:

unEARTHED. The Earthjustice Blog

EPA Moves To Ban Dangerous Rat Poison


    SIGN-UP for our latest news and action alerts:
   Please leave this field empty

Facebook Fans

Related Blog Entries

by Jessica Knoblauch:
Friday Finds: Monsanto’s Ministry of Truth
Friday Finds: Monsanto’s Ministry of Truth

Pesticide-resistant bugs eat Monsanto’s crops, lies & profits Monsanto is taking a page from George Orwell's 1984 with the recent release of a...

by Jessica Knoblauch:
Friday Finds: Big Coal’s Big Sugar Daddies
Friday Finds: Big Coal’s Big Sugar Daddies

Report finds allegedly “green” banks finance dirty coal A recent investigation by a group of non-governmental organizations found that a ...

by Jessica Knoblauch:
Friday Finds: Tequila Transformation
Friday Finds: Tequila Transformation

Tequila takes a shot at decreasing gasoline use A new study that looks at the life-cycle analysis of agave-derived ethanol has found that the desert ...

Earthjustice on Twitter

View John McManus's blog posts
31 January 2013, 11:17 AM
John McManus

EPA Moves To Ban Dangerous Rat Poison

Manufacturer refused to comply with measures protecting children, wildlife

There’s a dangerous type of mouse and rat poison on the market that when eaten by the rodents, causes them to bleed to death internally. Problems arise when the poison sometimes finds its way into the hands of kids or pets or moves up the food chain from rats and mice to foxes, bobcats, owls and the like that pounce on sickly rodents.

Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie sent a letter to the State of California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation in December asking the state to order the stuff off the market. The state has yet to respond but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now says it will start the process to ban forms of the poison used in the home that lack tamper-resistant packaging. While EPA is taking a significant step in the right direction, more needs to be done to protect children and wildlife.

Poisoning and killing of wildlife have been documented in eagles, hawks, owls, bobcats, mountain lions, foxes and other predators. The EPA reports that on average, more than 100 pets die each year from exposure to rodenticides and up to 10,000 children are accidentally exposed to rat poison in the home environment. Use of good old fashion snap traps is a safe alternative that poisons nothing.

Gray fox suffering from rodenticide poisoning. (Courtesy of WildCare by Melanie Piazza).

Gray fox suffering from rodenticide poisoning.  (Courtesy of WildCare by Melanie Piazza)
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 5, 2013.

When will we learn?? Poisoning is not the way to go! It will always have some sort of negative effect on everyone and everything! BAN poisons now!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 5, 2013.

I see these poisoned rats all the time at work. They move extremely lethargically....another animal would find them very easy prey. A curious child could easily pick one of these rats up and get bitten severely.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 5, 2013.

I see these poisoned rats all the time at work. They move extremely lethargically....another animal would find them very easy prey. A curious child could easily pick one of these rats up and get bitten severely.

Submitted by LESAGE (not verified) on February 5, 2013.

stop those death

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 3, 2013.

i always find new and unique things on this blog and this is the reason i repeatedly visit this site, and this is really helping others http://www.ffxibank.com

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 31, 2013.

protect wildlife, ban rodenticides.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <p> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <blockquote>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options