Rat Poisoning on Anacapa Island

I was shocked that in these supposedly environmentally conscious times the national parks department is planning to airdrop poison onto Anacapa Island to exterminate a population of black rats. The anticoagulant poison causes lengthy pain and suffering to all its victims.

This chemical is not approved by the EPA for wilderness use, but somehow an exemption was received for Anacapa Island. The problem is the environmental domino effect. The poison will travel through the entire food chain, killing more than the targeted rats. Additionally, there will be runoff of poison into the ocean that could affect marine life, including dolphins and whales.

It is not feasible to trap all of the birds of prey or the scavenger seabirds that might feed on the poisoned rats. It is not possible to pick up all of the uneaten poison pellets because poisoned rats will die slowly over a period of days and will therefore store, as is their nature, some of the poisoned pellets. Moreover, just because the poison-laced pellets will dissolve, does not mean that the poison itself will disappear.

Another obvious flaw in this poisoning program is that if even one or two rats are left alive along Anacapa Island’s inaccessible cliffs, they will repopulate and this expensive and environmentally dangerous program will have failed.

Weather permitting, the poison will be dropped soon. The more awareness and protest of this environmental disaster in the making the better. The consequences of poisoning an entire ecosystem are incalculable, and surely long-lasting. I urge you to contact your elected officials and add your voice to stop this precedent-setting, wholesale environmental poisoning.

Diane Underhill

Ventura