During nearly two decades of research in and around the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, park service scientists have documented widespread exposure in carnivores to common household poisons.
Of 140 bobcats, coyotes and mountain lions evaluated, 88% tested positive for one or more anticoagulant compounds. In wide use in parks, schools and homes, rat poisons are designed to kill rodents by thinning the blood and preventing clotting. Many people who set bait traps don't realize the poisons work their way up the food chain. Countless animals are known to have died from internal bleeding caused by poisoning, researchers said. Moreover, these poisons are also affecting protected and endangered species including golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) and San Joaquin kit foxes (Vulpes macroitis mutica).
Nearly 20 municipalities throughout California, including San Francisco, Calabasas and Malibu, have passed resolutions urging residents not to purchase and businesses not to sell "second-generation" anticoagulant rodenticides, said Jonathan Evans, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco.
However, the maker of d-CON, a leading rat poison, is fighting efforts to ban sales of its product to consumers, arguing that it is safe when properly used. The company contends that by eliminating consumer access to one type of effective, affordable rodent control, California runs the risk of increasing the use of alternative products that contain powerful - and potentially more harmful - neurotoxins.
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