Owlet Dies From Rat Poison, ​Prompts Anti-Rodenticide Campaign

MARIN COUNTY, CA – Marin County Parks, Yard Smart Marin and the WildCare organization are uniting in a campaign against the use of rat poisons after a Barn owlet died this month from eating a poisoned rat.

The owlet was found under a nesting box in Deer Island Preserve in Novato within the Marin County Open Space District.

A Marin County Parks naturalist took the owlet to WildCare's hospital in San Rafael on June 4 with symptoms of rat poisoning that included bleeding under the skin.

The owlet was cold to the touch, depressed and emaciated. It was given fluids for hydration and tube-fed with liquid nutrition but died the following afternoon, WildCare spokeswoman Alison Hermance said.

A necropsy revealed indications of anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning.

"The owlet must have died from eating a poisoned rodent," Hermance said.

Marin County Parks does not use rat poisons, and the poisoned rat the owlet's parents brought home must have been found outside Deer Island Preserve, Hermance said. Ironically, the rat poison killed the very animal that naturally keeps the rodent population in check.

WildCare treats 4,000 animals and 200 different species, and 76 percent of predators that eat rodents have traces or large amounts of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides like De-Con in their bodies, Hermance said.

"There are rules in California that prevent access to De-Con but it's still available for agricultural use to licensed pest control companies," Hermance said.

The rodenticide often is used at food establishments to control the rat population in commercial areas, especially those with loading docks, Hermance said.

Yard Smart Marin has launched a new educational campaign, "Stop. Think. Protect." to inform the public of the dangers of using rat poisons in the county.

WildCare, Marin County Parks and Yard Smart Marin encourage the use of alternatives to rodenticides such as removing food and bird seed that attract rodents and sealing any possible entry points for rats into structures.

Residents and businesses can also ask pest controllers to use the least toxic solution for a rodent problem.

More information is available at www.discoverwildcare.org/YardSmartMarin.

By Bay City News Service

Photo Credit: Neil Bowman/FLPA/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock