​Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) are the poisons found in those little black boxes littered around daycares, affordable housing complexes, local stores and food markets, to name a few.

SGARs work to kill some mice and rats, but aren’t truly effective at controlling rodent populations– and sometimes make the problem even worse. They also need to be replaced often, adding additional costs to communities most impacted by rodents.

Communities deserve a solution.

Raptors and other animals of prey are also killed because of SGARs, which accumulate in their system after eating infected rodents. By killing owls, hawks, eagles, and more, thousands of rodents who would have otherwise been consumed by predators are free to roam in our communities.

To make matters worse, the American Poison Control Centers of America reported in 2022 alone that over 11,000 people in the US, the majority of them children, sought treatment for being inadvertently exposed to SGARs poisoning. Over thirty deaths were recorded.

This is unacceptable when other alternatives that are more effective and pose little to no risk exist and are being implemented elsewhere. Rat birth control has been shown to reduce rodent populations by 64% in urban communities and 91-95% in more rural settings. There are a number of other affordable options that mitigate the human and rodent interactions that cause health problems in humans.

The state of California has had a moratorium on SGARs since 2021 and Rhode Island has the opportunity to lead on this issue. We don’t need more poisons pushed into our environment and our communities. We urge the RI legislature to ban the sale and use of SGARs by passing H-7783 and S-2745 and stop forcing communities to become repeat customers of SGARs.