Letters to the Editor: There is no good reason to cut restrictions on harmful rat poisons

To the editor: That the California Department of Pesticide Regulation would even consider rolling back existing regulations on the use of the anticoagulant rat poisons despite hard proof that they cause great and unbearable harm up the food chain, causing inhumane deaths in a multitude of species, is stupefying (“Deadly rat poisons are pushing L.A.’s mountain lion population to the edge,” Jan. 13). These anticoagulant rodenticides are horrific. The fact is that safer, alternative rodent control methods are working, yet the department is willing to bring this dreadful poison back into full use. Officials could not possibly offer a good reason.

The deaths caused by this rodenticide are unbearable and horrible: I have watched two bald eagles die on my mother’s property as a result of this product. There was a family of sharp-shinned hawks in my neighborhood (mid-Wilshire) — no longer. All dead from eating poisoned rats. My dog nearly died from this poison after finding three dead poisoned rats in a hidden spot of my yard and licking them early one morning.

These anticoagulant rat poisons need to be banned everywhere forever. They cause irreparable harm to our precious wildlife and, yes, to our pets.

Ruth Peebles, Los Angeles

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To the editor: For those many advocates of wildlife, including our mountain lions, to learn that the California Department of Pesticide Regulation is proposing to increase pesticide use is beyond abhorrent. We know of the unconscionable cruelty of condemning sentient creatures to a slow and painful death from their ingestion.

Cougars have become admired as a natural predator that rarely attacks or kills humans. We are aware of their vulnerability to being killed on our roads and freeways or in wildfires, so much so that California is constructing an expensive wildlife crossing to allow them and other animals to safely move from one area to another. Many of us are also hoping that these iconic creatures might be granted the status of “threatened” as their numbers ominously dwindle, so to have them further put at risk by lethal rodenticide poisons is reprehensible.

The carnage that these rodenticides cause among wildlife species is monumental. In order to prevent rodent infestations, it is vital that we take all already-known necessary, effective and common-sense precautions before resorting to using rodenticides. To fall short of that is beyond inhumane — it is unfathomably stupid.

Elaine Livesey-Fassel, Los Angeles