Rodent Poisons Harm Wildlife

Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are killing non-target species at alarming rates. ARs are routinely dispensed at residences and businesses in the form of food bait to entice rodents and other animals to ingest poison and die slowly from internal bleeding. Secondary poisoning occurs when predators consume the ARs stored in the tissue of poisoned prey. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife found that over 80% of tested bobcats, foxes, coyotes, hawks, owls, and 95% of cougars were exposed to ARs (CDPR 2018). Over 70% of these cougars tested positive for >3 distinct ARs, suggesting that there are often multiple point sources of exposure to the poisons.

Imperiled cougar populations cannot afford rodenticide casualties. Small, genetically isolated cougar populations in Southern California and the Central Coast became candidates for listing under the state’s Endangered Species Act in 2020. Four cougars tracked by the Santa Monica Mountains National Park Service as part of a long-term study of regional cougar population viability have died as a result of rodenticide exposure, including P-3, P-30, P-34, and P-53.

Secondary poisoning of bobcats in the same region made their populations vulnerable to a parasitic disease epidemic that resulted in such drastic losses that several previously populated areas went without bobcats for years. Cougars are not as numerous as bobcats but are similarly susceptible to this negative outcome, thus increasing the odds of local extinction. 

AB 1788 has passed through the California State Legislature. The bill will now head to Governor Newsom’s desk.

AB 1788 will be heard before the full Senate next week. The date is yet to be determined.

Californians-- Call your State Senator AND Assemblymember and let them know you support AB 1788. 

Click here to find out who your representative is. We suggest you call the number at their Capitol office. 

Here is an example of what to say: 

"My name is ________ and I’m your constituent in ________, California. I am calling to respectfully ask you to vote YES on AB 1788. I would like to sincerely thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.”

or 

“My name is ________, and I’m your constituent in ________, California. I am calling to respectfully ask you to vote YES on AB 1788. Given that the Central Coast and Southern California mountain lion populations were granted candidate species status under the state’s Endangered Species Act due to concerns over their long-term viability and that rodenticides have caused multiple mortalities within these at-risk populations, I support a moratorium that would allow further scientific investigation of rodenticide impacts on mountain lions and other non-target species, especially in regions where lions face the threat of extinction. Please vote YES on AB 1788.”

After you call your representative, spread the word! Post this on your social media page:

"I just asked my State Senator and Assemblymember to support AB 1788 and protect California’s cougars from second generation anticoagulant rodenticides! Californians-- I urge you to do the same! For more info: cougarconservancy.org/rodenticides #breakthepoisonchain"