Please sign and urge Governor Newsom to ban the use of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides!

Rodenticide poisons do not just kill rodents. They are responsible for harming and killing countless wildlife across the state of California. AB-1788 would require a ban on the most toxic and deadly form of rodenticide poison, classified as Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs), until the state is able to ensure that these products do not adversely affect wildlife.

A few key points from the bill state:

• Wildlife, including birds of prey, mountain lions, bobcats, fishers, foxes, coyotes, and endangered species such as the northern spotted owl, pacific fisher, and San Joaquin kit fox, are an irreplaceable part of California’s natural ecosystems. As predators of small mammals, they play an important role in regulating and controlling the population of rodents throughout the state to improve public health and welfare.
• Scientific research and state studies have found rodenticides in over 75 percent of animals tested. These rodenticides lead to direct mortality and chronic long-term health impacts for natural predators, nontarget organisms, and endangered species and further steps are needed to reduce rodenticide exposure in nontarget animals.
• While all anticoagulant rodenticides have a harmful impact on nontarget animals, second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) are particularly dangerous to nontarget wildlife as SGARs are higher potency than prior generations and a single dose has a half-life of more than 100 days in a rodent’s liver. Due to high toxicity and concern for impact on nontarget wildlife, the Department of Pesticide Regulation banned consumer sales and use of SGARs in 2014, restricting their purchase and use to certified pesticide applicators.
• Despite the 2014 regulations issued by the Department of Pesticide Regulation, scientific research and state studies have found no significant reduction in the number of nontarget wildlife with detectable levels of SGARs in their system. From 2014 through 2018, the Department of Fish and Wildlife found SGARs in more than 90 percent of tested mountain lions, 88 percent of tested bobcats, 85 percent of protected Pacific fishers tested, and 70 percent of northern spotted owls tested. Such data indicates that a consumer sales and use ban of SGARs has been insufficient to reduce rodenticide exposure in nontarget animals and further steps must be taken.
• Rodenticides can be counterproductive to rodent control by poisoning, harming, and killing natural predators that help regulate rodent populations throughout California.

In August 2020, AB-1788 cleared the state senate, sending the bill to ban Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) to Governor Newsom for signature.

Please sign this petition and urge Governor Newsom to sign AB 1788 into law!