U.S. Plan to Kill Rats on Anacapa Delayed a Month

A National Park Service plan to kill off Anacapa Island’s black rat population will be delayed until at least Dec. 1 while the agency fights a lawsuit filed by animal rights groups.

The New York-based Fund for Animals and the local Channel Islands Animal Protection Assn. want to stop the $700,000 plan to shower the island with poisonous grain pellets, which the park service hopes will protect a rare bird by killing the rats. The first helicopter drop, which had been planned for Nov. 1, was postponed when the groups threatened legal action.

Park service officials agreed to give the groups 72 hours’ notice before proceeding with the plan, but the opponents , deciding that wasn’t good enough, filed a complaint Friday aiming to permanently stop the agency’s plan.

“Using this poison is one of the most inhumane and indiscriminate choices,” said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Fund for Animals. “It’s simply a bad idea.”

A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled sometime before Nov. 30 in U.S. District Court, attorneys said. A judge could decide to permanently halt the federal effort or let it proceed.

Park service officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the opposition is raising the ire of other environmentalists who have supported the park service plan for two years. They argue that nonnative rats are threatening survival of a rare bird, Xantus’ murrelet, which nests in only a few spots in the world, including Channel Islands National Park, about 20 miles off of the Ventura County coast.

“There is broad agreement in the wildlife conservation community that ridding Anacapa Island of rats is a necessary step to reverse some very dangerous population trends of several seabird species,” said Dan Taylor, state director for Audubon California. “This latest action in no way should be seen as a victory for the environment.”

Robert Chipley, a director for the American Bird Conservancy in Virginia, agreed that attempting to halt the project is missing the bigger picture.

“I think it would be a pity to let the rats kill off all the birds, and turn the place into a biological desert only fit for rats,” he said.

The eradication plan is part of an ongoing effort to return the national park to its native state by removing nonnative intruders, including sheep, burros, pigs and golden eagles. The national park consists of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara islands.

Xantus’ murrelets thrive on Santa Barbara Island, where they are not threatened by black rats. Because the island habitats are similar, the bird population could increase on Anacapa once the rats are gone, biologists say.

Markarian of the Fund for Animals said his group firmly believes no wildlife should be killed inhumanely, particularly those not threatening the murrelet, such as hawks and owls that would prey on the dead rats and also fall victim to the poison.

“Whatever the answer is, it’s certainly not this highly toxic poison,” he said. “We hope the court will recognize that and force them to cancel this plan permanently.”

Park service officials and supporters of the plan, which would be carried out over two years, acknowledge that wildlife other than the rats would die from the poison. But they say it’s a small price to pay for the long-term benefit of restoring the number of Xantus’ murrelets on Anacapa.

“There’s really a need to do something for that species now,” said Harry Carter, a seabird biologist in Dixon, Calif., “rather than wait until the numbers get so low that extinction is inevitable.”