Rodenticide Poisoned Birds Of Prey Inspired Flaco’s Law: PETA Celebrates Rats’ Rights! Passage Will Save Scores of Little Lives

PETA Celebrates Rats’ Rights! Passage of Flaco’s Law Will Save Scores of Little Lives

Editor’s note: This law does not ban these products for consumer use, and many of the rats consumed by owls, hawks, and other raptor birds are killed because of poisons used in residential homes. You can see the beauty of the raptor birds in our article about Staten Island’s Raptor Fest. 

The following description of the law, which is named after a beloved owl named Flaco who died after eating a rat who had eaten poison, comes from an article from The City published on the City Council’s website: 

“The New York City Council on Thursday introduced a bill to protect the city’s wildlife — inspired by the death of Flaco the owl and other birds of prey sickened by eating poisoned rats.

“Flaco’s Law” would include changes to how the city mitigates its rat population, encouraging a different kind of birth control for the rodents — instead of poison…

“We can’t poison our way out of this, we cannot kill our way out of this,” he said, noting the unintended consequences of using rodenticide — like a Rottweiler puppy who died after eating poison while walking in Washington Heights. The poison also contributes to untold animal deaths each year, including Flaco’s, THE CITY previously reported.

“Under his proposed bill, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would work with the Department Sanitation to launch a pilot program to send out pellet-like contraceptives in the city’s “rat mitigation zones.” There would be at least two pilot program areas covering at least 10 city blocks and last at least half a year, per the bill.”

NYC Bird Alliance has been fighting to get rodenticides banned by everyone including consumers for some time, as these products are devastating to birds of prey.  

The following is from their website: 

The methods we use to control rodents can have a devastating impact on our birds of prey. Rodenticides, also called rat poisons, are commonly used to control rodent populations. One type, called anticoagulant rodenticides, cause death by stopping normal blood clotting. Anticoagulant rodenticides pose a serious risk to rodent predators such as hawks and owls: Rodents that eat the poison bait may not die for several days, and during that time become slow and sick, easy targets for predators.

When birds of prey such as Red-tailed Hawks eat these rodents, they become poisoned themselves. If the bird is small enough, like a nestling, or has eaten enough poisoned prey, the toxin can be lethal. Rat poisons (anticoagulant rodenticides) were detected in 84 percent of dead birds of prey found in New York City, in research conducted by the Wildlife Unit of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 

Signs of rodenticide poisoning in birds of prey. Graphic: NYC Bird Alliance

Anticoagulant rodenticides, when ingested by birds of prey in a significant amount, cause interference with blood coagulation and spontaneous bleeding. Specific signs include bleeding from the mouth, internal hemorrhaging, widespread bruising, and anemia. Hatchlings are at a significantly greater risk of poisoning due to their small size. Common anticoagulant rodenticides include warfarin, diphacinone, chlorphacinone, brodifacoum, difenacoum, and bromadiolone.