This beautiful Barn Owl was one of the lucky ones. With proper treatment, it survived.
If you look at the advertisements or read the labels of the hundreds of pesticides available, they all promise to solve a problem with great ease. There is a lot of information that labels and advertisements won’t tell you.
Using poison laced baits to control rabbits, squirrels, rats and mice has left many thousands of pets and wildlife injured or dead. Many species of native wildlife, including coyotes, skunks, bobcats, owls, mountain lions, hawks, raccoons, foxes, falcons, and vultures rely on rodents as a food source. Once a poisoned rodent is eaten, the predator becomes poisoned as well. If we lose these species to rodenticides, we also lose the huge benefit these species provide to the environment-keeping rodents at manageable levels.
There are two types of poisoning. Non-target poisoning occurs when wildlife (as well as pets and children) ingest poisons intended for rodents. Secondary poisoning occurs when a poisoned rodent is eaten by a pet, or a wild animal. Some species bring back food to their young, and regurgitate it. If the meal was a poisoned rodent, the young then end up poisoned as well.
The statistics regarding rodenticide poisonings are staggering.
Call High Desert Wildlife Control at 760.961.5980 for rat, mouse, and ground squirrel problems. We address these issues without the use of harmful rodenticides.
According to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation: Of the 492 (wild) animals analyzed between 1995 and 2011, approximately 73% had residues of at least one second generation anticoagulant rodenticide.
Links: Rodenticide Effects on California’s Wildlife
Recent Urban Goyote Death Linked to Restricted Rodenticides
Endangered San Joaquin Kit Foxes Poisoned by Rodenticides
Rat Poison Found in Remains of Mountain Lion P-41
Despite Ban, Rat Poisons Still Sickening Mountain Lions
Seven of 10 Northern Spotted Owls Test Positive for Rat Poison
Rat Poisons Claim Another Unintended Victim: Mountain Lion P-34
LA Mountain Lion P-22: A Poster Cat For California’s Rat Poison Problem
Anticoagulant exposure and notoedric mange in bobcats and mountain lions in urban Southern California
Rodenticides Can Harm Wildlife: California Department of Fish & Wildlife
Anticoagulant Rodenticides: Secondary Poisoning of Wildlife in California
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