For more than a decade, Friends of Griffith Park (FoGP) has sponsored the testing of raptors and mammals found dead in and around the Park for exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides. These results, in combination with studies across California, have demonstrated that dozens of mammal and raptor species are routinely ingesting rodenticides by eating poisoned rodents. Most research on the impacts of rodenticides on non-target wildlife has focused on mammals and raptors.

Although snakes are major rodent consumers, only a few studies around the globe have examined whether snakes are also ingesting rodenticides. An ongoing study conducted at the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County, and partially funded by FoGP, is helping to address this lack of information. Early results demonstrate that multiple snake species are also routinely exposed to these toxins.

What are Anticoagulant Rodenticides and How Do They Impact Non-target Animals?

A common way to try to limit rodent populations in agricultural areas or around structures is to use anticoagulant rodenticides. Once ingested, these toxins prevent blood from clotting. Exposed rodents die due to internal bleeding several days after ingestion. Non-target animals that prey or scavenge upon these dead or dying rodents can then get exposed as well (termed secondary poisonings). Many types of anticoagulant rodenticides will bioaccumulate, or build up in a predator or scavenger over the course of multiple exposures, and can then cause illness or death.

The above scenario should sound familiar to those who followed Griffith Park’s resident mountain lion, P-22. As a four-year old, P-22 was found in 2014 suffering from mange and with high levels of anticoagulant rodenticides. Exposure to rodenticides is known to weaken the immune system, with mange being a common outcome for coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions. Following his death, P-22 was once again found to have been exposed to multiple anticoagulant rodenticides and was again suffering from mange.

Are Snakes Also Getting Exposed to Rodenticides?

Southern California has been a hotspot for research into secondary poisonings from rodenticides. Research results have caused the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to enact bans on multiple rodenticides, sometimes banning public use and other times banning use by both the public and by professional applicators. Nevertheless, some anticoagualant rodenticides are still available for use in California. Increased awareness of the species impacted by rodenticides could help to influence future policy on rodenticide use.

Because rodenticide exposure was common in studies of SouthernCalifornia mammals and raptors, I began wondering whether snakes might also be consuming poisoned rodents. About a decade ago, I started keeping salvaged snakes from areas where rodenticide exposure seemed possible.

As Curator of Herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, I have developed a network of people who salvage roadkilled snakes. Over the years, freezers at the museum started
filling up with roadkilled snakes that might one day be used for rodenticide testing. The challenge was to find funding to test these specimens. In early 2023, Gerry Hans, on behalf of the FoGP Board, reached out to the Museum to suggest a partnership to fund rodenticide testing of local wildlife. Around the same time, the Museum was awarded a research training grant from the National Science Foundation that included funds to support research by early-career scientists. With funding now available, we could finally defrost and sample the frozen snakes for rodenticide testing.

Over the past few months, I worked with museum researcher Taylor Vasquez to do exactly this. Early results are now in, and over 30% of the snakes tested positive for rodenticides, including the following species: California kingsnake, gopher snake, coachwhip, Southern Pacific rattlesnake, and Southwestern speckled rattlesnake. Four snakes tested positive for multiple rodenticides.

This ongoing study highlights the negative impacts of using anticoagulant rodenticides to control rodents—numerous native species, including coyotes, bobcats, hawks, owls, and snakes, also end up being poisoned. As native predator populations decline from unintentional poison exposure, pest populations are likely to increase making people even more dependent on pest control efforts.
The best way to simultaneously control rodents and also protect the wildlife that would otherwise help limit rodent populations is to use mechanical traps specifically designed for mice and rats. Avoiding rodenticides will help our native predatory species and also decrease the chance that a family dog or cat is also exposed to rodenticides by consuming a poisoned rodent.

The snake study will continue through this summer. We will increase the number of specimens tested, the number of species examined, and the geographic coverage of the sampling. Stay tuned for an update in a future issue of this newsletter.

~Dr. Greg Pauly, Natural History Museum of LA County

Dr. Greg Pauly is Curator of Herpetology and Director of the Urban Nature Research Center at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He studies the ecology, evolution, and conservation of reptiles and amphibians, including the Blainville’s horned lizards found in Griffith Park. He also leads the Reptiles and Amphibians of Southern California (RASCALS) project on the iNaturalist community science platform.

SEE ROADKILLED SNAKES?

Through Fall 2024, we are looking to add more snakes to the rodenticide study. With temperatures warming, snakes are on the move. Unfortunately, this means that some snakes will be found dead along roads. Fresh roadkills can be salvaged and potentially used for rodenticide testing.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you can safely approach a roadkilled snake (please be careful around traffic), take a photo of the snake, and email that photo to Gerry Hans (Gerry@friendsofgriffithpark.org) and Greg Pauly (gpauly@nhm.org) with a detailed description of the location (best if you can provide an address or allow your phone to log latitude/longitude coordinates with your photo).

If the snake is not venomous, you can also move it to a shady spot so it doesn’t continue to get run over. If the snake is venomous, please do not handle it in any way. We are looking for snakes from the Griffith Park area; we also encourage reports of roadkills elsewhere in our Greater Los Angeles area. When possible, Gerry, Greg or a Museum staffer will attempt to salvage the snake for study use.

To include in the study, salvaged snakes must be:
• A species that eats rodents.
• Within a half mile of houses, other buildings, or agricultural lands.
• In relatively good shape. If the snake is more than a day old, smells, or has been run over numerous times, its liver is probably too damaged for testing.
• Snakes cannot be juveniles. A rattlesnake needs to be at least 20 inches long. If any other species (for example, a gopher or king snake), the snake needs to be at least 24 inches long. In smaller snakes, the liver will be too small for testing.

News Flash: UPDATE ON AB 1322 / Nov. 1, 2023

On Oct. 13, 2023 Gov. Newsom signed this legislation into law after the bill passed through both CA Houses. The law will provide further protection of wildlife and it’s importance cannot be overstated — especially as the effects of rodenticides continue to wreck havoc, specifically raptors and nesting young.

According to the urban raptor conservancy website: the ubiquitous black boxes around commercial buildings, in alleys, and residences contain rat poisons like Brodifacoum, Bromadiolone, and Diphethialone. If you look closely at the bait boxes; they´ll list the type of poison inside.

Positive exposure to Anticoagulant Rodenticides (ARs) has been found in 16 species of raptors, including 82% of Cooper’s Hawks, 72% of Red-tailed Hawks, and 59% of Barn Owls. Secondary rodenticide exposure will have far-reaching consequences on California´s nesting raptors. And other species are also affected; mountain lions, coyote, bobcats, and in Northern California, San Joaquin kit foxes are especially vulnerable.

Facts about rat extermination

We will never get rid of rats.
No method of rodent control is failsafe. If rat poison worked, we wouldn´t have to keep using it.
The harm caused by rodenticides far exceeds their limited benefits. There is no such thing as a ‘good’ rat poison.
If you must use a method to eliminate mice and rats around your residence, reach out to your pest control company and ask what method they use to trap the rodents.

A red-tailed hawk hovers aloft over the 101 in the midday sun, scanning a nearby hillside for signs of life. This raptor’s keen eyes catch the rustle of grass, a long tail disappearing into the vegetation: the telltale signs of a waiting meal. Pest control is on the clock, and this hardworking mom has mouths to feed back at her nest. She suddenly makes her move: wings tucked, in a steep dive heading straight for an unsuspecting rodent who today has the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Success! With lunch grasped tightly in her sharp talons, the hawk heads back to her hungry chicks, job well done.

But what she doesn’t know is that the now ex-rat in her grip is a ticking time bomb: because a few days ago that rat fed on what it thought was a tasty snack in a black box in the back alley of an apartment complex, and he’s been feeling sick ever since. His days were numbered even before the hawk’s shadow fell across his path. And now, when this hawk shares this meal with her chicks, the anticoagulant rodenticide concentrated in this rat’s organs will do just what it says on the box. In addition to killing the pest, it will kill the pest control too.

Hang on, I thought we banned rodenticides! It was all over the news.

You’re probably thinking of AB 1788; this bill, the California Ecosystems Protection Act, went into effect January 1, 2021 and was a big win for wildlife. The bill made the strong case for the harm caused by second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) to the very predators that are naturally working to control the rodent populations in the wild and in our cities. Prior to this bill, California had limited the over-the-counter sales of these SGARs in 2014, but studies conducted on wildlife in the intervening years showed no significant decrease in rodenticide exposures and associated deaths: not surprising, since SGARs were still widely in use by commercial pest control companies, and available via mail from online retailers. AB 1788 is an even stricter regulation of the use of SGARs; however, the bill makes several notable exceptions for public health activities, protecting water supply infrastructure, agricultural production and food storage facilities, medical waste facilities, and use on offshore islands to eradicate invasive species. So while it’s significantly harder for the average California consumer to procure SGARs or the services of pest control companies who utilize them, these deadly poisons are unfortunately still out there.

First generation? Second generation? What’s the difference?

First-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs) were developed in the 1940s and 50s, and work by disrupting blood clotting, causing internal bleeding and eventual death over the course of a few days to a couple weeks. FGARs like diphacinone or chlorophacinone are still widely available for consumer purchase. You might remember the shocking photo of our late great celebrity cat P-22, back in 2014 when he was captured and treated for mange; tests revealed he had both of the aforementioned FGARs in his system. Rodenticide poisoning weakens an animal’s immune system, and this parasitic skin condition is one of the ways it can present.

Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) are more potent than first-generation, and may only require one feeding to be fatal. These blood-thinning toxins include brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and difethialone, and all cause massive hemorrhaging and death within several days. However, the toxins themselves have a half-life of over 100 days and so their potency persists as they work their way up the food chain to apex predators. The average person or company putting out these poison baits is thinking only about solving the immediate problem at hand: when in fact, poisoning the ecosystem has the opposite effect in the long-term, actually increasing the population of rodents by eliminating their predators. These predators have a much slower reproduction rate than their prey, so in the time it takes to replace one apex predator lost to rodenticide, many more rapidly reproducing rodents will have set up shop in your neighborhood.

But I see those black boxes all over the city and my neighborhood. Don’t the rodents get trapped inside after they’ve eaten the bait? How are predators eating them?

Contrary to popular belief, these bait boxes aren’t rat coffins. They are designed so that rodents can go in and out, returning to feed on the bait multiple times and/or bringing back bait to their young. And once the now-poisoned rodents leave these boxes, they often present an easy meal to the neighborhood cat or great-horned owl as they weaken, succumbing to the poison’s effects. These bait boxes may say they’re tamper-proof, safe for pets and children, but on average every year in the United States, tens of thousands of children and pets accidentally consume rat poison.

But my pest control company says their methods are safe!

“Safe poison” is an oxymoron: if a pest control company tells you their product is non-toxic, check to see if it contains any of these FGARs like diphacinone and chlorophacinone, or the nerve toxin bromethalin, all of which are still available to consumers. Even though the FGARs are less potent and slower acting than SGARs, they still have potentially lethal capacity if consumed directly or indirectly by children, pets and wildlife. Bromethalin, which acts by way of causing respiratory distress and death within 24-48 hours, is lethal if consumed directly.

I just discovered I have mice in my house! What am I supposed to do now if I can’t use rodenticides?

OK, so you heard the distinctive skitter of tiny rodent feet in your walls, or found their dreaded droppings in your cupboard. Don’t go reaching for the poison! First: focus on exclusion. How are the mice getting into your home? Seal up any entry points. Trim tree limbs and vegetation away from walls and the roof. Reduce the amount of welcoming rodent shelter available around the house like woodpiles and ivy. What’s attracting them to your home? Keep your trash bins closed; make sure you’re not leaving pet food out; clean up birdseed from the ground under your feeders. Old-fashioned snap traps are still a quick and efficient way to control unwanted houseguests; newer electronic traps work well, although these traps are more expensive. NEVER use glue traps: they are a slow, inhumane way for any animal to die, and non-target wildlife like birds and lizards often get stuck by accident. If you’re looking to hire a pest control company, ask around for one that practices Integrated Pest Management and verify that they aren’t using poisons. Some companies are also beginning to implement rodent birth control as a non-toxic strategy for long-term population reduction. And, if all that doesn’t have you convinced, an unintended consequence of using rodenticides is that this out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach may result in a decaying rat in your walls: it may be out of sight but certainly not out of scent.

The rodent problem in our city is of our own making, but it’s a problem we can solve with the aid of our furred, feathered, and scaly neighbors: and without anticoagulant rodenticides. Help us protect current and future generations of our all-natural pest control. Let the predators do their job, and leave the poison on the shelf.

You’re preaching to the choir. I already don’t use rodenticides and love watching the wildlife in my neighborhood. What else can I do to help?

One great way to help the wildlife in your neighborhood is to cultivate native plant habitat where you live: no matter how small the space: to increase the biodiversity of your area and connect to other nearby habitats, thus creating your own version of a wildlife corridor and providing natural sources of food and shelter for your local animals.

On the subject of food, do not feed wildlife! Maybe you saw someone hand-feeding their illegal pet raccoon on social media and you thought it looked cute, but raccoons and other wild animals can be vectors for many diseases including rabies, and wild animals that become too habituated to humans lose their instinctual fear and can become aggressive. Animals have specialized diets, and those that become too reliant on human food will become malnourished and get sick or die from eating the wrong foods. There are others ways to show your love for wildlife than endangering their lives for a photo op!

If you do see any animal that appears sick, injured, or behaving suspiciously, do not attempt to touch it, capture it, or feed it without first consulting wildlife care professionals. There is, for example, currently an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza particularly in raptors and waterfowl, and very strict precautions must be taken when handling potentially infected wildlife.

Also, it’s now spring which means it’s baby season! Don’t assume baby animals on their own are abandoned: their parents may have left them in what they thought was a safe spot, and they are nearby searching for food. Observe from a safe distance to see if the parents return, and if you are still concerned, please call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or rescue like California Wildlife Center, International Bird Rescue Center, Marine Mammal Care Center, or Ojai Raptor Center for further instructions. You may do more harm than good by trying to “help” a baby animal that doesn’t need it. And please hold off on tree trimming until the fall or winter, after nesting season.

And finally, for the sake of your beloved cats’ wellbeing and for the wellbeing of all our wildlife, keep your cats indoors!

~Angela Woodside, FoGP member

 

Current Rodenticide Legislation [AB 1322]

Assemblymember Laura Friedman is leading the legislative charge against the use of diphacinone, the agent that made P-22 sick in 2014.

Recently, FoGP funded lab testing of a young bobcat, confirming it had a high load of diphacinone.

AB 1322 would extend the existing moratorium on dangerous second generation anticoagulants, and adds diphacinone, the most widespread rodenticide used today. It has a high probability of affecting non-targeted wildlife.

There is little doubt that most of the use of this agent is by pest control “professionals” in residential neighborhoods.

Help us support AB 1322!

More on the impacts of rodenticides

The long struggle to reduce the use of second generation rodenticides in California reached its final chapter as Gov. Newsom signed AB 1788 on September 29, 2020. This legislation, aimed at protecting wildlife, found itself in jeopardy several times in the lead-up to final passage and when we say it was a struggle, it’s an understatement. Friends of Griffith Park’s President Gerry Hans noted, “it was a real nail biter” as this legislation was finally passed in the eleventh hour.

FoGP and other environmental activist groups are finally celebrating passage of AB 1788 — groups that worked closely with legislators to advocate for this bill. AB 1788 will ultimately save countless lives and bring more balance back to California ecosystems. In a nutshell, the law sets a moratorium on the most potent anticoagulants, restricting rat poisons routinely used by the pest control industry. It’s important to understand there are exceptions, including rodenticide use for declared public health situations, agriculture activities, food storage, and more.

The bill prohibits use of these agents while the Department of Pesticide Regulation completes its reevaluation of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. We believe their findings will indicate that use of these rodenticides pose significant, adverse effects to non-target wildlife, so this moratorium would become a ban for the future, an optimistic, expected result.

However, what’s not included in AB 1788 are the rest of the anticoagulant rodenticides, first generation rodenticides, so there’s still much work to be done. First generation agents are also stubbornly apparent in the food web. In fact, Griffith Park’s beloved P-22 mountain lion was a victim of this group of poisons. He was lucky; he got treatment, but countless other species do not receive this lifesaving treatment.

The long history of legislative attempts and failures to take anticoagulants off the market underscores how fortunate environmental activists were in getting this legislation passed! One small step at a time is still progress. Here’s the broad strokes why it was imperative to get AB 1788 passed. After all, this wasn’t the first time the bill made the rounds in the California legislature.

According to studies conducted by various California agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Park Service and others, 80-90% of our predator species — like owls, raptors, bobcats, coyotes and mountain lions — have been exposed to and/or affected by second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARS). More disturbing — a single dose of this rodenticide has a half-life of more than 100 days in a rat’s liver so when rodents are consumed, these poisons can quickly move up the food chain.

While we know rat poison kills much more than rats, just as significant are the non-lethal impacts weakening populations of various species. As these poisons move through the food chain, effects on wildlife have been devastating. Internal bleeding, mange and other life-threatening reactions are some of the impacts. Even worse, young chicks are inadvertently poisoned in their nests, leading to even greater losses.

We know that large cities in California have a rodent problem — because cities have a garbage problem. Humans create massive amounts of garbage every single day, and where does it go? Into trash cans, dumpsters, city and county dumps, and sometimes onto city streets. And where there’s garbage, there will be rats and other pests.

The question then becomes, how do we balance the problem of rodents and trash? In the past, we looked to pesticide companies to create solutions, but solutions generally included the use of harmful rodenticides. Now the challenge will be to create other means of rodent control. In other words, build a better, less destructive to the environment “mouse trap.” Think of all the pivoting and adjusting businesses have made because of the pandemic and you know that humans are capable of coming up with workable solutions. And there is one really simple solution — put trash in proper receptacles and keep the lid on, which will lessen the need for rodenticides. Little steps will help tremendously.

Meanwhile, let’s coordinate with nature and allow predators to do their job. Owls, hawks and coyote can take care of rats on the edges of cities as well as in parklands.

Restoring the balance lost in nature is the biggest challenge, and passage of AB 1788 is a step in the right direction. Let’s hope this important piece of California legislation will become the template for the rest of the country as well.

~ Kathryn Louyse, FoGP Board member

Owl Photo: courtesy of Allison Brooker.
Sadly, this young owl died from rodenticide poisoning. By eliminating rodenticides, we’re helping to protect raptors, owls and other species. MORE INFORMATION.

SIGN PETITION TO GOVERNOR NEWSOM AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE!

In August, 2019, AB 1788 legislation targeting dangerous rodenticides (rat poisons) in California was nearing its final Senate Committee approval and would eventually arrive on the governor’s desk pending his signature. However, there was a disappointing setback.

More time was required to allow the coalition of environmental advocates to work with state agencies to ensure that the bill would not only pass, but it would be effective and enforceable from day one. At author Richard Bloom’s (CA State Assemblymember / District 50) request, the bill was converted to a two-year bill.

A two-year bill is one that is “introduced early in first half of two-year session but is delayed
and can’t meet deadlines to clear both houses before interim recess in mid-September.
These bills must clear the house of origin by January 31 of the second year or they die.”

Bloom’s AB 1788 “would create the California Ecosystems Protection Act of 2019 and expand this prohibition against the use of a pesticide containing specified anticoagulants in wildlife habitat areas within the entire state.” Coauthors of the bill included Assemblymember Laura Friedman / District 43 and CA Senator Henry Stern / 27th District. Exemptions built into the bill would have protected agriculture, activities in certain locations as well as public health exceptions. This commonsense approach to unrestricted poisoning of wildlife near community centers was cancelled by the bill’s author (Bloom) as it went before the final CA committee prior to a full senate vote.

In the meantime a statewide coalition of environmental advocates will continue to rally public support for the eventual passage of AB 1788. These organizations include the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), Raptors are the Solution (RATS), Poison Free Malibu, Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (CLAW), Social Compassion in Legislation, Project Coyote, Humane Society of the United States, WildEarth Guardians, Wildlife Emergency Services and Friends of Griffith Park (FoGP). It must be noted that while AB 1788 has received widespread support from individuals and organizations concerned about indiscriminate poisoning of wildlife populations, there was strong opposition from the pest control industry which ultimately jeopardized successful passage of this bill.

Friends of Griffith Park would like to thank all who either sent letters or made phone calls in support of AB 1788. The coalition will continue its efforts to get the bill passed during the next legislative session. Your support helped AB 1788 to pass through six different committee and floor votes in the California legislature. This is the farthest a rodenticide bill has ever gone, and the coalition is determined to build on the momentum to ensure that the bill passes in 2020.

We’re asked how folks can continue to stay involved in the process,
so here are a few suggestions:

• Ask your local hardware stores not to stock/sell rodenticides. There are alternatives and we’ve discussed some of these in articles on our website, including https://friendsofgriffithpark.org/breaking-the-poison-chain/
• Talk to your elected officials. If you’re attending an event and you find yourself face-to-face with a councilmember or representative, strike up a conversation and let them know of your concerns.
• Support organizations that support this legislation! There are many organizations purporting to help the environment, but if you don’t see your favorite non-profit on the list, ask if they DO support a ban on rodenticides. If they have no response, take the conversation further.

If you’re interested in taking further steps to protect wildlife from these rat super toxins, go to Animal Legal Defense Fund’s online petition: https://aldf.org/article/urge-governor-newsom-to-protect-wildlife-from-super-toxic-rat-poisons/

Currently AB 1788 has passed through all CA Assembly committees and Assembly floor hurdle. It’s now before the final CA Senate committee (Appropriations Committee) and we need public support to get the bill passed through this committee and on the full Senate Floor.

When you contact your representative, please emphasize the points (below).
If you’re unsure which district you reside in, please check to see if it’s 25 or 24 (or if you’re outside the area completely, check the “Find and contact your state senator.”)
Senator Portantino staff representing District 25 can be reached at (916) 651-4025 or (818) 409-0400.
Senator Durazo staff representing District 24 can be reached at (916) 651-4024 or (213) 483-9300.
Are you outside Senator Portantino’s or Senator Durazo’s district? Find and contact your State Senator here.

Rodenticides are poisoning California’s native wildlife — including mountain lions, bobcats, hawks and owls.

• Rats who consume anticoagulant rodenticides are in turn consumed by other wildlife, resulting in secondary poisoning and contamination of the food chain.
• A 2018 state analysis found super-toxic rodenticides in more than of tested mountain lions, Pacific fishers, and bobcats.
• AB 1788 would ban second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) except for agricultural use or by special permit. The bill also prohibits less potent, but still dangerous, first generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs) on state-owned lands. If passed, California would be the first state to ban these super-toxic poisons.

If you’re able to speak directly with a representative in your senator’s office, here are a more few points to make as there are many unintended consequences of using rat poisons…

• Anticoagulant poisoning has been documented in numerous California wildlife species, including: coyotes, San Joaquin kit foxes, black bears, raccoons, mountain lions, bald eagles, great-horned owls, skunks, Pacific fishers, and bobcats.
• P-47, the famous mountain lion studied by researchers since he was 4 weeks old, was found dead earlier this year in Southern California. Testing on his liver determined P-47 was exposed to six different anticoagulant rodenticide compounds.
• Though California banned consumer use of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides in 2014, wildlife poisoning has continued. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s database of mountain lion deaths reveals anticoagulant rodenticides were found in the livers of 63 out of 68 deceased mountain lions between 2015 and 2016.
• Young children routinely consume poison intended for rodents, sometimes confusing the bait for food. Similarly companion animals either consume the bait directly or consume poisoned rodents.

Now that this legislation has moved out of the CA State Assembly, the next step will be the Senate…

It’s easy to locate your CA Senator… go to http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Here are some bullet points that you can use to make your points:

• I care about protecting California’s wildlife. Please support AB 1788, the California Ecosystems Protection Act.
• Rodenticides (rat poisons) designed to kill rodents are poisoning California’s native wildlife. Rodenticides are consumed by rats, who in turn are consumed by other wildlife, resulting in secondary poisoning and contamination of the food chain. Rodenticide poisoning is widespread. A recent analysis of 11 studies found that more than 85% of California mountain lions, bobcats, and Pacific fishers have been exposed to these dangerous poisons.
• This bill would ban second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) throughout the state, except for agricultural use or by special permit. It would also ban the use of less potent, though still very dangerous, first generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs) on state-owned lands.
• Since the California Department of Pesticide Regulation pulled second generation anticoagulants from consumer shelves in July 2014, there has been no decrease in the rate of wildlife poisoning from these products. The continued use of rodenticides by licensed pest control applicators still allows rodents to consume rodenticides and then poison non-target wildlife (and even pets) who consume the rodents themselves. In fact, based on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s own studies, from 2014 to 2018, an estimated 70 to 90% of various tested wildlife species in the state were found to have SGARs in their systems. Simply put, the evidence shows that a consumer ban on SGARs alone is insufficient to protect California’s ecosystems and further steps must be taken. AB 1788 would ensure that use of these harmful toxins are prohibited full-stop in the State of California, while still leaving licensed applicators and consumers with ample tools to address rodent infestations.
• In addition to harming wildlife, anticoagulants rodenticides pose an unreasonable risk to children who may accidentally ingest these highly toxic poisons. Between 1999 and 2009, the American Association of Poison Control Centers received reports of an average of 17,000 human exposures to rodenticides each year, with 85% of these exposures, (i.e., approximately 15,000 per year), occurring to children less than 6 years of age.

And don’t forget to save your letter’s text, since we’ll ask you to email it to the next committee in June!

Also, provide your full name and full residential address at the end of your email.

and one more thing we ask… please SHARE THIS WITH OTHERS!

more information…

We urge you to stay informed and when we ask that you contact your representatives, we hope you’ll respond with the same enthusiasm as when this legislation first came before the committees. It’s important to eliminate rodenticides for future generations of wildlife and ALL life!

https://aldf.org/article/bill-regulating-super-toxic-rodenticides-advances-out-of-california-assembly/

Thanks to the support of thousands of Californians over the past month, AB 1788, the California Ecosystems Protection Act, has passed through three Committees and now heads to its next crucial step, a floor vote by the entire California Assembly, as early as this week! We urgently need your help to complete this next hurdle by phoning your representative.

You can find your representative at http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/. Click on your Assembly Member’s name to go to their webpage. Their phone numbers are usually found at the bottom of that page.

Please make the call this Monday or Tuesday.

AB 1788 would ban second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) throughout the state, except for agricultural use or by special permit. These are the most toxic — “one feeding kills” — poisons that stay in rodents’ systems for weeks and contaminate the food chain, causing poisoning to California’s iconic wildlife. The bill would also ban the use of less potent, still very dangerous, first generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs) on state-owned lands.

Data from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, the National Park Service, UCLA, and other scientists have shown that predator species such as owls, hawks, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, and mountain lions, as well as endangered species such as the spotted owl and Pacific fisher have been exposed to these poisons. Figures vary between species exposure as the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s analysis of 11 wildlife studies has determined these poisons were documented in 88% of tested bobcats, more than 90% of tested mountain lions, and 40% of tested barred owls.

This bill is common-sense legislation that simply curbs the use of the very worst of these super-toxic poisons in certain situations, while still allowing the use of rodenticide products that are less dangerous.-¹ Even so, the national pest control industry is doing everything it can to stop this bill from passing and that’s where we need your help!

Please help make AB 1788 law with a simple phone call to your State Assemblymember, asking him or her to vote “yes” on AB 1788.

Sample Message: I am your constituent, and I care about protecting California’s wildlife. Please vote YES on AB 1788, the California Ecosystems Protection Act.

Thank you very much for your support!

AB 1788 is important to Griffith Park wildlife, as well as ALL wildlife in our neighborhoods. Rodenticides (rat poisons) designed to kill rodents are poisoning California’s native wildlife. Rodenticides are consumed by rats, which in turn are consumed by other wildlife, resulting in secondary poisoning and contamination going up the food chain. Rodenticide poisoning is widespread. A recent analysis of 11 studies found that more than 85% of California mountain lions and bobcats are exposed, and these species reside in Griffith Park.

CALL NOW to leave a short voice message of SUPPORT to your district representative!
Attached is the list of representatives that need to hear from you!

Autumn Burke / Inglewood (916) 319-2062 or (310) 412-6400

Ian Calderon / Whittier/Norwalk (916) 319-2057 or (562) 692-5858

Mike Gipson / Compton/Carson (916) 319-2064 or (310) 324-6408

Blanca Rubio / Azusa, Baldwin Park, San Gabriel Valley (916) 319-2048 or (626) 960-4457

Miguel Santiago / Central Los Angeles/DTLA (916) 319-2053 or (213) 620-4646

CA Rodenticides Bill AB 1788 has passed the first committee
…but your comments are still needed as this bill is now going to the next committee!

A bill to ban the worst of the rat poisons has passed it’s first hurdle, the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, and is slated for presentation at the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

We thank you immensely for your support and for contacting our elected officials — but we still need you to let our elected officials know to ban these deadly RODENTICIDES, because these poisons kills much, much more than rats!

AB 1788 will ban the most toxic rodenticides, the “second-generation” anticoagulant rodenticides, with exceptions for some agriculture and public safety emergency usages. These potent rodenticides inadvertently kill owls, hawks, bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions as the poisons move up the food chain.

Two previous bills to restrict the use of some rat poisons in California failed because of lobbying efforts by agricultural interests.

This time, let’s not allow this to happen. We need you to send emails of support for AB 1788.
Read more here.

Even if you’ve already sent a comment to the previous committee, you should STILL voice your support for AB 1788 since it is now before a new committee which hasn’t seen it!

The California Assembly requires that all support letters be submitted through the Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee online portal (there is button on the right side to “submit position letter”). You will have to create a login for this, but it is fairly simple and easy to do!

Take a moment to show your support! It’s NOT JUST California wildlife that’s depending on it… it’s also our future generations!

WILDLIFE CHART compiled by Urban Carnivores and NPS. Thanks to CLAW (Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife) for info

Remember how sick P-22 was a few years ago?
AB-1788 is now being considered at the CA Assembly
but it’s not just P-22 that’s affected… It’s

Make Your Voice Heard Today
because comments are needed by Tues., Mar. 19!

A bill to ban the worst of the rat poisons was recently introduced — and our elected officials need to hear from YOU today!

AB 1788 will ban the most toxic rodenticides, the “second-generation” anticoagulant rodenticides, with exceptions for some agriculture and public safety emergency usages. These potent rodenticides inadvertently kill owls, hawks, bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions as these poisons move up the food chain.

Two previous bills to restrict the use of some rat poisons in California failed.

This time, let’s not allow this to happen. We need everyone to get onboard and send emails in support of AB 1788. Read more here.

Friends of Griffith Park and other environmental organizations were notified over the weekend that AB 1788 has been set for its first hearing, in the Assembly Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials “ESTM” committee, on Tuesday, March 26 at 1:30 pm (State Capitol, Room 444).

With this date rapidly approaching, support letters must be submitted by Tuesday, March 19 at 5:00pm (PST) to be considered in the committee’s analysis. FoGP has already submitted a formal letter which can be accessed here.

There will be other hurdles down the line, but we want everyone to step up to the plate TODAY and voice their support for AB1788.

The California Assembly requires that all support letters be submitted through ESTM’s online portal (there is button on the right side to “submit position letter”). You will have to create a login for this, but it is fairly simple and easy to do!

Please act quickly! Do it today because California wildlife is depending on you!

Speaking of P-22, occasionally we get some positive news about the “big guy’ and how he’s been doing… so an update is in order.

In May 2019 he was recaptured to do some bloodwork and change out his monitor battery (they do go bad after awhile). According to NPS officials, he’s looking great. Our only complaint about the article… P-22 is not roaming the Santa Monica Mountain range. His range is actually the 4,000+ acreage encompassing Griffith Park. If he roamed further afield, he would probably encounter other predator cats which wouldn’t be a good thing. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/P-22-Mountain-Lion-Recaptured-in-Healthy-Condition-Officials-Say-509391251.html

Now it’s time to eliminate rat poison usage in the residential areas of Los Angeles — after all, wildlife moves freely between residential and public places. Here are tips for keeping our urban wildlife healthy by not using rat poisons:

Primary Rodent Control

• Get rid of favorite food sources such as spilled bird seeds, pet foods, fruit rotting on trees, snails and slugs.
• Eliminate rodents’ favorite habitats, such as English ivy, wood piles, and other outdoor sheltering spots.
• Seal it. Rodents find ways into sub-basements, vents, and attics. Openings — even dime-sized holes — must be sealed.
• Remove grass, vegetation, and any debris next to your house and buildings.

Secondary Rodent Control

• If rodents are numerous or have breached your home, mechanical or electronic traps are the most humane method to deal with the problem. Don’t use glue traps; don’t use live traps. Other wildlife could get entangled and besides, it’s very cruel.
• If you call a pest control company, insist they not use anticoagulant rat poisons. There are many harmless-sounding trade names for the same nasty poisons hidden in “bait boxes” so don’t be fooled.
• Old fashioned wood snap traps work fine and are inexpensive. Electronic traps work, too. There are even electronic traps that will send you an email notice when tripped! How’s that for technology?

And finally, don’t freak out just because you saw a mouse, rat, or even two! As in Griffith Park, many rodent species are part of a normal ecosystem. In the Park, rodent species include the very cool dusky-footed woodrat and the cute California vole.

~Gerry Hans

Want to know how the poison chain works?

There are electronic and other traps available in stores and online that eliminate rats and mice without resorting to rodenticides. These can range substantially in price and capability. Make sure to shop around when you’re comparison-shopping to get exactly what you want.

Thus poisons enter local food webs and become especially harmful to top predators. Through a process called bioaccumulation, animals at the top of the food chain absorb toxins from eating lots of different prey animals but their organs cannot filter out the toxins, so poisons accumulate in their systems. As a result, some of the most iconic species in California — bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, owls — are the most vulnerable to this form of indirect poisoning.

The potential consequences of rat poison exposure on carnivores in the Santa Monica Mountains have been the foremost question of researchers working at the National Park Service (NPS) and UCLA since 2002. I have been a part of this team of biologists since 2006 when I began as a wildlife intern with the NPS. As an intern, I had firsthand experience with poisoned wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains when I recovered my first dead bobcat. Later that year, I jumped at the opportunity to do a PhD investigating the effect of rat poisons on bobcats. I could see even then that biologists and conservationists alike had no grasp of just how our indiscriminate use of rat poisons is dangerous for wildlife.

At the time I came on board, we knew very little. For example, the effect of the anticoagulant rat poison chemicals could vary widely among different animal species that may ingest the poisons. Domestic dogs are 100 times more vulnerable to the toxic effects of these poisons than domestic cats. Would the same trend hold for wild dog species (coyotes, foxes) compared to wild cat species such as bobcats and mountain lions? Data suggested the trend was the same: anticoagulant poisoning was a leading cause of death in coyotes in the Los Angeles area, but NPS biologists documented only one bobcat and two mountain lion deaths directly due to poisoning.

Another important trend was emerging for bobcats. Bobcats were dying at unprecedented rates due to uncontrollable outbreaks of mange. It was beginning to look like the population might not survive. Mange is a common skin parasite that was previously rarely fatal to bobcats because their immune systems can suppress the infection. Something was preventing the bobcats’ immune systems from doing its job effectively. Interestingly, veterinary pathologists discovered that every bobcat that died of mange had high levels of anti-coagulant exposure. The pathologists suggested that mange and anticoagulants may be linked, but they could not explain how rat poisons would cause a common infection such as mange to become fatal.

NPS biologists and I proposed a hypothesis. Like domestic cats, bobcats may be tolerant to the anticoagulant effects of the rat poisons, but low-level chronic exposure to the poisons had other weakening effects in bobcats, specifically in the way their immune systems functioned. These invisible effects likely increased their susceptibility to mange. To test this hypothesis, we would need to know how many bobcats were actually being exposed to the poisons across the Santa Monica Mountains. Then we needed to know if there were measurable health effects that explained the link between anticoagulant rodenticides and fatal mange infections.

We faced two problems. First, we needed to test the immune systems of enough bobcats to understand how their immune systems work before and after they are exposed to rat poisons. That meant spending months capturing animals all over the Santa Monica Mountains and collecting blood and other samples to test in the laboratory. The second problem was more intractable: no one had invented laboratory tests to study the immune function of bobcats. We had to develop our own methods.

The study involved trapping more than 125 bobcats from across the Santa Monica Mountains, including Griffith Park. I worked with researchers from all over the country to devise new ways of measuring bobcat immune function. With these new methods, we generated detailed health and genetic profiles of each bobcat we captured. With help from the NPS and US Geological Survey biologists, I also collected 172 bobcats that died of mange or vehicle collision so that I could collect liver samples which are the preferred samples for anticoagulant rat poison testing (the compounds accumulate in the liver over time). With these samples, I then assessed prevalence of and risk factors for anticoagulant exposure in bobcats.

The findings confirmed my worst fears. We detected that 89% of bobcats were exposed to the poisons when we used liver samples! By comparison, we detected only 34% exposure using blood samples from the live-trapped animals (we can’t take liver samples of live animals without harming them). This difference in exposure detection reflects that the poisons are in the blood of an animal for a considerably short period of time before it is filtered from the blood stream by the liver, where the compounds can then persist for more than a year! I also discovered how close a bobcat lived to residential and other urban development was the single best predictor of whether that bobcat had been exposed to rat poison. This finding indicated that poison use around residential areas was the primary contributor to environmental contamination.

Next, we used health profile data generated from live-trapped animals that were both exposed, and unexposed, to the poisons. We wanted to discover any evidence of the poisons altering immune function such that bobcats may become more vulnerable to deadly mange infection. Unexpectedly, we found explicit evidence that the poisons suppress certain types of immune cells, while stimulating others! In other words, their immune system has to work harder but cannot work as effectively as the immune system of unexposed bobcats.

More recently, UCLA colleagues used some of the blood samples I collected to probe whether this immune dysfunction was expressed on a genetic level. The work supported my initial findings; anticoagulants promote immune dysfunction in bobcats. They also discovered other compelling links; anticoagulants change the level of expression of genes associated with skin maintenance. Overall, it is becoming increasingly clear that even when these poisons don’t kill wildlife directly, they still have consequences that may indirectly kill animals by making them vulnerable to other stressors such as disease.

This new understanding of the indirect effects of rat poisons raised another question. How else does exposure indirectly endanger bobcats? Bobcats were also being hit by vehicles at alarming rates. Could anticoagulant rat poisons increase bobcat vulnerability to being hit by cars? The poisons might make animals sluggish, or weaken their senses. Crossing roads would then become a much riskier venture.

Since we used all our resources on analyzing immune function, we lacked the means to investigate this new hypothesis. FoGP stepped in and supported our preliminary analysis of bobcats hit by vehicles. Next, we needed to find bobcats “freshly” hit by cars to collect blood samples, and, if possible, then test them for anticoagulant exposure. It can be difficult to collect blood from dead animals, and so it has taken a lot of work and patience to build our sample set, and even after years of working in this population, samples were limited.

In the end, we managed to scrape together samples from 18 bobcats hit by cars, and from those blood samples, we detected 50% anticoagulant exposure. We compared these findings to the much larger dataset of 185 captured bobcats tested for anticoagulant exposure. Within the capture dataset, 34% of bobcats were found recently exposed to anticoagulants even though they were apparently healthy at the time of capture. After statistical analysis, we did not find a relationship between recent exposure to rat poisons and to being hit by cars.

While the newest work funded by FoGP disproved our hypothesis that recent anticoagulant exposure increases bobcats’ vulnerability to being hit by cars, our work overall has shown the unexpected, indirectly lethal effects of anticoagulant exposure in bobcats. The work FoGP funded also taught us something much more important. It isn’t just one challenge these animals face. Living close to humans brings lots of dangers and if these populations are to survive in urban landscapes, we must find ways to contain these risks.

We appreciate FoGP’s continued support and interest to help us tackle these important conservation issues.

~Dr. Laurel Serieys PhD

About Dr. Laura Serieys, PhD

Currently Dr. Serieys is working on two new urban carnivore projects. She created and coordinates the first urban carnivore study in Cape Town through the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The Urban Caracal Project is assessing the effects of urbanization on a wild cat species, the caracal, in Cape Town. An interview with Serieys on BBC talks about her ongoing caracal research at Studying the elusive caracal.

Dr. Serieys is also coordinating the Coyote Valley bobcat study through UC Santa Cruz where she’s documenting mange and anticoagulants affecting bobcats in the San Jose, CA region.

Top photo courtesy of Dr. Serieys and B. Rowan. Bottom: Sedated bobcat from National Park Service study in 2011. The study examined behavior, ecology and conservation of bobcats, in particular how urbanization has affected bobcat populations in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills.

PLEASE NOTE:
Recently California Assembly Bill 2422, designed to restrict rodenticide usage in California was not heard in a committee hearing and missed its opportunity to become legislation in 2018.

In the meantime, Friends of Griffith Park is demanding that Rec and Parks adhere to its stated rodenticides use policy. We’re also asking LA residents not to use rat poison!

Click here for a downloadable pdf on how rodenticides move up the food chain…