Environmental and animal welfare organizations, citizen advocates, biologists/scientists, and veterinarians have been ringing the alarm on rodenticides for decades, demanding safe, humane solutions to pest control. In response to the growing awareness of rodenticide-abundance in the ecosystem, the pain and suffering these products inflict on animals, and the availability of better solutions, municipalities across B.C. have prohibited the use of rodenticides on city-owned properties and have formally demanded that the provincial government take action. However, the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has not addressed these demands, and has further failed to uphold its obligations to protect its citizens and the environment from pest control products by permitting their continued use.

Rodenticides, also known as “rat poisons” are ingestible pesticides used to kill rats, mice and other target rodents. These products are inhumane, pose serious threats to animals including family pets and wildlife species, the environment, and to human health, while at the same time failing to control rodent populations over the long-term.

Chemicals classified as rodenticides vary in the active ingredients they include, but generally aim to kill unwanted pests by preventing normal blood clotting, causing internal hemorrhaging, or disturbing nervous system functions. These compounds, enhanced with attractive flavors and colors, are commonly placed in and around homes and commercial areas to attract unwanted wildlife, leading to death.

Animal Impacts

A broad spectrum of animals beyond targeted pests, including wildlife and family pets, are affected through direct or secondary ingestion. Animals that ingest rodenticides experience great pain and suffering over a period of days or weeks, most often leading to death.

Many of B.C.'s treasured native and at-risk species face serious risks of rodenticide poisoning. In addition to rats, small animals including songbirds, shrews, voles, and other non-target mammals and invertebrates are known to access bait boxes containing these poisons. This direct feeding is contaminating the food-chain and wider ecosystem: birds of prey, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, skunks and other mammalian predators that feed on small animals have been found to have rodenticides in their systems.

Owls and other raptors are at a particularly high risk of secondary poisoning because of their dependence on rodents as a food source. Between 1988 and 2003, 70% of dead owls from B.C. had residues of at least one rat poison- and the number of owls dying by poisons has only escalated in recent years. The increased poisoning of barn owls is of particular concern because of their status as threatened under Schedule 3 of the federal Species at Risk Act.

Other jurisdictions have identified 29 mammalian and 11 avian threatened and/or endangered species that are potentially at risk of rodenticide exposure.

Human Health Risks

Rodenticides are known to bioaccumulate and persist in the environment posing human health risks. Recently, researchers in the United States have even measured traceable levels of ingestible rodenticides in the milk supply. The American Association of Poison Control Centers receives approximately 10,000 reports of rodenticide exposures in children annually in the U.S.

More humane, more effective alternatives do exist.

It has become clear that without regulatory pressure, the pest management industry is unwilling to move away from their archaic and inhumane forms of pest control. Alternative approaches to poisons do exist, and a transition to chemical-free methods can be accomplished with relative ease and prove cost-effective for the consumer and the government in the long run.

Furthermore, raptors and other predators that feed primarily on rodents serve as a natural and chemical-free method of pest control. A single owl killed by secondary poisoning could have eaten around 1,000 rats per year. Instead of poisoning, constructing owl boxes is one helpful approach to pest management.

Of course, it is imperative to address the root cause of a rodent issue as a preliminary step.

Preventative resource management and exclusion (rodent-proofing) is the best long term pest management strategy. That is, preventing access to food and shelter on the property thereby removing vector attractants, locating and closing off all entry points, and maintaining these measures. Pest management providers that utilize these methods have begun to emerge in BC and are in high demand.

B.C. has a legal obligation to protect its citizens from the pervasive risks of rodenticides.

In Canada, pesticides are regulated by a multi-tiered legislative scheme. The mandate of the federal Pest Control Products Act (PCPA) is to protect the health of Canadians and the environment against unacceptable risks from the use of pesticides. Reasonable certainty that no unmitigable harm to the environment is required to justify the registration of pest control products. B.C.’s Integrated Pest Management Act (IPMA) builds on this mandate by implementing a proactive and preventative approach to managing pest populations. Toxic chemicals including rodenticides are only to be used as a last resort and in a manner that minimizes hazards to the environment.

The federal and provincial governments have an obligation to treat the well-being and protection of the environment as a primary consideration. It follows that rodenticides should not pose any unacceptable risks if their use is to be permitted. To the contrary, despite acknowledging that rodenticides are highly and acutely toxic compounds that pose serious threats to the health and safety of children and non-target species, the federal government continues to register these products, and B.C. continues to allow them to be used.

Contrary to B.C.'s Integrated Pest Management Act, rodenticide use is not being replaced by non-toxic measures of pest control. In B.C. alone, brodifacoum sales have increased by 19% and bromadiolone sales have increased by 279% between 2003 and 2015, with a total of 91kg of rodenticide active ingredients sold in 2015.

British Columbians have demonstrated that protection of the environment is key to their quality of life. The risks and known impacts of rodenticides are unreasonable and unacceptable. These products are inhumane, dangerous, ineffective and inadequately regulated - their permitted use is inconsistent with our values and the obligations owed by the government to protect its citizens and the environment from pest control products.

UPDATE: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy recently introduced new restrictions on some Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (“SGAR’s”). However, the changes only reduce the use of products containing the active ingredients brodifacoum, bromadiolone, and/or difethialone: just 3 of 27 active [toxic] ingredients found in rodenticides currently registered in Canada. Additionally, overly-broad and unnecessary exemptions and complexities further frustrate compliance issues and enforcement impossibilities

While the Ministry’s amendments are a step forward, the restrictions fail to adequately protect wildlife, pets, and people from unreasonable adverse effects caused by rodenticide products.

It is clear that mere restrictions are not enough. There is no place for poisons in our ecosystem. Speak up for wildlife, pets, and people as we call on elected leaders to act.

*This petition is limited to B.C. residents only*