08/06/2025
Save Newbury Wildlife's letter to the editor in today's Daily News of Newburyport:
Letters
Support bills that restrict rodenticides
To the editor:
We need to stop poisoning our wildlife. Rat poisons – second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs), in particular – are sickening and killing owls, hawks, eagles, foxes, coyotes ... even turtles. Yes, turtles.
Raptors and mammals succumb to these indiscriminate rodenticides from eating poisoned rats (the intended targets). Turtles are becoming poisoned, wildlife biologists have recently discovered, from rodenticides seeping into waterways and tainting the turtles’ ecosystem.
Of course, rodenticides also endanger our pets. A dog or cat who unwittingly ingests these poisons – whether from eating tasty rat bait or from eating a poisoned rat – often requires costly, lifesaving treatment that is not always successful.
Anticoagulant rodenticides prevent blood from clotting, causing internal bleeding that eventually leads to death. So-called first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides remain in an animal’s system for about seven days. More toxic SGARs remain in animal’s system for four weeks, so a rat who has ingested SGARs is more likely to become poisoned prey for predators.
Two Massachusetts legislative bills, H.965 and S.644 (House and Senate version, respectively), “An Act restricting the use of rodenticides in the environment” seek to protect animals from rodenticide poisoning.
These bills are currently before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Concerned Massachusetts citizens should email the committee: [email protected]
and ask members to move both H.965 and S.644 favorably forward to a hearing, the next step in this legislative process. Also write to your respective Massachusetts state legislators and ask that they support these bills.
Those of us represented by state Reps. Kristen Kassner and Dawne Shand, and state Sen. Bruce Tarr are fortunate that they, along with 111 other legislators, have co-sponsored these bills. Please thank them for their support.
Rats live in our communities. We won’t eradicate them. And we shouldn’t: they are the natural prey of raptors. Raptors do a far better job at managing rodent populations than do rodenticides – without poisoning our environment.
But ... we certainly don’t want rats inside our homes, nor inside our vehicles. While preventative actions can keep rats away, we understand that infestations require drastic actions. In public health emergencies, H.965/S.644 allow the use of rodenticides, up to 14 days, accompanied by integrated pest management actions that include non-chemical methods and exclusionary measures.
Newbury officials should take note and rescind a yearlong waiver against the town’s rodenticide policy, granted to the police department this past December, to address a public health emergency that has since passed.
Kathleen Downey
on behalf of Save Newbury Wildlife
