Fairfield will no longer use a class of rat poisons known as second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs on municipal property.
The Fairfield Board of Selectmen approved the ban of SGARs, which kill rats by preventing their blood from clotting. The poison is used by licensed pest control companies, but environmental groups and animal rights advocates say it poses a risk to raptors, foxes and other wildlife, even household pets.
“What ends up happening is the rat eats the poison, and a hawk or eagle eats the dead rat and dies,” said Ted Luchsinger, co-director of the Fairfield Pollinator Pathway and a member of the Conservation Commission, who pushed for the SGARs ban. “Raptors are part of our natural ecosystem, we don’t want to be killing the thing that kill the rats.”
Banning the use of SGARs is taking hold in the state Legislature. Proposed House Bill 6915, which would restrict the use of SGARs in Connecticut, passed out of the Environment Committee on Feb. 28 and will move to the House floor for a vote.
State Rep Anne Hughes, whose 135th district serves Easton, Weston, and Redding, co-sponsored the bill. It’s her third attempt to ban SGARs.
“Here in Easton, we are so fortunate to have a native, highly effective pest control,” said Hughes. “One family of owls can eat up to 3,000 rodents in one breeding season. Yet these are nature’s very own pest control that is being lethally harmed by these rodenticides. There is no way to apply SGARs in a way that will not harm children, pets or wildlife — whether you have a license to do so or not. It’s not the person, it’s the poison.”
Animal rights advocates like Nicole Rivard, with Friends of Animals, a Darien-based nonprofit animal advocacy group, testified in support of the bill.
“We hope that Connecticut will be the next in line to have safe and effective anti-rodent tactics rather than using these deadly poisons,” said Rivard, adding that British Columbia and California have passed similar laws.
Opponents of the bill who testified before the Environment Committee were mainly from the pest control industry who say they are well trained in using the poison.
“The Environmental Protection Agency determined SGARs were so harmful that they pulled them from consumer shelves in 2014,” Hughes said. “But licensed pest control companies can still use them–of which there are approximately 322 in Connecticut, and because of a loophole they are available on the internet.”
Luchsinger said Fairfield has terminated its contract with a pest control company to partner with WISDOM Good Works, an Arizona-based non-profit that offers a non-toxic bait that renders female mice and rats infertile.
The pilot program is funded for one year by the Conservation and Public Works Department, Friends of Animals in Darien and Call of the Wild.
The town will set WISDOM Good Works traps at the Transfer Station and Public Works Garage. Luchsinger said volunteers will be needed to manage the bait boxes around town. He has high hopes for the new pilot program.
“It’s a form of birth control. It doesn’t kill them, it just makes the female rat less fertile,” said Luchsinger. “If you reduce the population of rats then it becomes manageable by nature. We need rats we just don’t need an infestation of rats.”
Feature photo of Snowy Owl by Tomas Koeck
