May 27, 2024 - SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The California Assembly last week, passed the Poison-Free Wildlife Act, which would create stronger protections for wildlife unintentionally harmed or killed by toxic rat poisons. Assembly Bill 2552 now awaits state Senate approval.

Authored by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, A.B. 2552 would expand the existing rat poison moratorium to include first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides chlorophacinone and warfarin. These rodenticides, still available for purchase, continue to harm people, pets and wildlife, including birds, owls and foxes. This proposed legislation offers additional protections from toxic rodenticides and provides a framework for state regulators to develop stronger restrictions for their use.

“I’m encouraged to see lawmakers taking serious action to prevent the poisoning of pets and wildlife,” said J.P. Rose, Urban Wildlands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s unacceptable that California’s raptors, bobcats and mountain lions are bleeding out from the inside because of indiscriminate use of these poisons. We can do better as a society, and this bill is an important step toward a poison-free future.”

Despite the existing moratorium, which targets the first-generation anticoagulant rodenticide diphacinone and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, toxic rat poison that’s still on the market continues to sicken and kill wildlife that eats poisoned rodents. This secondary poisoning can be extensive throughout the food chain, harming California condors, mountain lions, San Joaquin kit foxes and many other imperiled wildlife. State officials have documented that more than 88% of raptors and 95% of mountain lions tested have been exposed.

A.B. 2552, sponsored by the Center, Raptors Are The Solution and Animal Legal Defense Fund, includes exemptions for rodenticides used to protect public health, water supplies or agriculture.

“Too many owls and other birds of prey have succumbed to these poisons — we are harming the very animals that help control rodents naturally. A.B. 2552 will help decrease those senseless deaths,” said Lisa Owens Viani, director of Raptors Are The Solution.

“California has enviable biodiversity but that also brings great responsibility,” said Jennifer Hauge, senior legislative affairs manager at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “As evidenced by the sighting of a new, untagged mountain lion in Griffith Park recently, time is of the essence to do all we can to protect wildlife from unnecessary harms.”

Unintended poisoning harms people too. There were more than 3,000 cases of anticoagulant rodenticide poisonings involving people in 2022, including at least 2,200 involving children younger than 6, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

There are much safer alternatives to toxic rat poisons that are effective and available to the public. They include exclusion, sanitation, fertility control and various traps. If this bill becomes law, there would still be more than 100 other rodenticide products available for use. For more about these options, visit raptorsarethesolution.org.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Raptors Are The Solution, a Berkeley-based project of Earth Island Institute, educates people about the widespread dangers of anticoagulant rat poisons in the food web and their impacts on birds of prey and other wildlife as well as about safe alternatives to rodenticides. Raptorsarethesolution.org

The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1979 to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are held accountable for their crimes; supports tough animal protection legislation and fights harmful legislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visit aldf.org.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity