Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides, also known as SGARs, are killing thousands of animals every year including pets. SGARs are poisons that kill rodents by causing them to bleed internally. These do not cause immediate death, so a rodent who ingests these is slowly dying with poison running through their blood. When other animals such as owls, hawks and eagles eat these poisoned rodents they are secondarily poisoned. They suffer the same sad, painful death of bleeding out as the rodents they consumed.
Representative Harvey of Cheshire District 6 put forth a bill, HB 1018, prohibiting the use of certain second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. This bill would ban the use of the SGARs Brodifacoum, Bromadiolone, Difenacoum and Difethialone. There are exceptions for using SGARs such as in the case of public health issues, medical waste facilities, food production and storage locations. The bill is currently assigned to the House Environment and Agriculture Committee and is awaiting a hearing date.
The EPA regulates rodenticides and has made it so SGARs can only be purchased by professionals and not general consumers. But this is not enough: We need to ban them altogether as they cause species decimation. Birds that are essential to the health of New Hampshire’s ecosystem as indicator species are being killed. These species are protected and necessary to the environment.
SGARs do not discriminate and can kill family pets when ingested. If you don’t know your pet ingested it or don’t know the signs, then your pet could die before you can get treatment. And they don’t just affect animals either. It has been found that almost 10,000 children accidentally ingest SGARs each year. Banning SGARs can prevent so many potential tragedies.
If you Google wildlife SGAR poisonings, so many stories will come up. Such as in 2021, when the New England Wildlife Center was called to help with a nest of great horned owls. Upon arrival, many were dead and covered in blood. Only two chicks were alive — one chick did not make it and the other required months of care to rid its little body of this toxic poison. This is not a one-time event either, as the New England Wildlife Center sees about 100 to 200 cases of second generation anticoagulant rodenticide poisonings in birds per year.
Tufts Wildlife Clinic found in a study from 2012 to 2016 that 96% of birds of prey that came to the clinic had SGAR poisoning. In 2020, Tufts found that 100% of the 43 red-tailed hawks tested in New England had some form of SGARs in their blood. It is safe to assume these numbers will continue to climb if we do not ban SGARs.
There are more humane options than poisoning wildlife. The first step to rodent control is to rodent proof your home and/or business. Find any possible entrances they are using and close them up. Keep anything that would attract them like trash and bird seed further from your property. You can also use humane live traps and then release the rodents back outside. Again, ensuring that you close any possible entrances to your home so they do not come back in. There are also pest control companies that specialize in humanely dealing with rodents which you can find with a quick online search.
Wildlife needs to be protected and we can do this by understanding the harm caused by SGARs. While rodent infestations are aggravating to home and business owners, wildlife — even rodents — should not suffer such a horrible death. If you want to get involved, you can email the House Environment and Agriculture Committee or come testify once a hearing for HB 1018 has been scheduled. It’s time for second generation anticoagulant rodenticides to be discontinued.
Lauren Martin lives in Amherst. She has a master’s in Animal and Public Policy from Tufts University.