Picture above is a baiting station containing Contrac (active ingredient is Bromodiolone) acquired from the parking lot of the Boathouse Restaurant a few weeks ago. Bell Labs Product information Many visitors to this site wrote to The Central Park Conservancy in responce to this issue, here is one letter with their denial: --Forwarded Message Attachment-- Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2007 09:30:32 -0400 From: DBLONSKY@centralparknyc.org To: DjskiXXX@aol.com Subject: Re: rat poison Thank you for your email to my assistant, Norma Soto, expressing your interest in Central Park and the wildlife we're so fortunate to enjoy here. In addition to the burgeoning red tail hawk population, there are other raptor species, such as screech owls, which also are beneficial in controlling and managing our rodent populations. Rats thrive in our dense urban environment and our primary methods of control are reduction of harborage & sanitation. In addition to keeping all of our landscapes as clean as possible during the day, we have dedicated staff at night whose job it is to empty trash receptacles after 4:00 pm. We also have rat- proof trash receptacles for heavily trafficked areas. In the course of the last seven-year period, there have not been any recorded cases of hawks or other raptors being poisoned by the active ingredient used in our limited baiting program. The cause of death for several birds found dead of rat poisoning in New York City was from the active ingredient found in rat poison commonly available in hardware stores and available to the general public, not in use here in Central Park by professional exterminators. All our field staff are trained with written procedures involving various wildlife situations, which include the collection for testing of dead birds and other animals. The amount of rat bait applied in the Park has declined in the same seven- year period. Feral cats are not allowed to live in the Park, as they reduce song bird populations. The Park has over 25 million visitors each year. Our goal is to provide each of them with a safe and enjoyable experience. The thrilling sight of a red tail hawk against the skyline is one of the experiences that we all love to see and hope to ensure for future generations of parkgoers. Sincerely, Douglas Blonsky President, Central Park Conservancy and Central Park Administrator >>> 8/5/2007 10:24 PM >>> Stop with the rat poison . Rats and mice are detrimental to the hawks food supply!!! Pale male and Lola`s eggs did not hatch this year and one main reason could be the toxins in their food supply. Please have a HEART and stop it!! www.centralparknyc.org Mission: To restore, manage, and preserve Central Park, in partnership with the public, for the enjoyment of present and future generations. ****************************************************** Rat Poison Killing affecting Children in NY ****************************************************** Murder Most Owl in Central Park Poisoned. Rats! By Carol Vinzant Published Jan 13, 2008 An owl was found dead in Central Park last month, and an autopsy by the state Wildlife Pathology Unit shows it was poisoned. The Parks Department poisons rats to control their population in city parks, and activists charge that it ends up killing other wildlife, too. “The birds that fall out of the sky, they are the canaries in a coal mine,” says Ward Stone, the unit’s head, who worries about toxins in the park. Poison that remains in a dead rat’s liver can end up killing predators, like owls and hawks, that eat the smaller animals. “An owl might eat a mouse one day, and it gets a little anticoagulant”—a kind of poison used to kill rats—“then it eats another, and it builds up in the owl’s body,” says Stone. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says he’s unaware of a large problem. “It may be happening, but no one has brought it to our attention,” Benepe says. “We’re open to any reasonable suggestion on how to control rats in parks.” Update: As of 5:00pm on Thursday, January 17, the following info has been confirmed: (1) an Eastern Screech-owl (not banded) was found dead in Central Park... (1) an Eastern Screech-owl (not banded) was found dead in Central Park in December 2007. According to Ward Stone, it died from a "blunt impact." This most likely occurred due to a collision with a vehicle. The owl was found along Naturalists Walk (West Side of Park in the area of 77th-80th streets.) Eastern Screech-owls are year-round residents (and breeders in Central Park). (2) a Northern Saw-whet Owl (not banded) was found dead on 8 December in Central Park. According to Ward Stone, this owl did indeed consume a small rat or mouse that had been poisoned. And the owl died as a result of that poison. Northern Saw-whets are migrants in our area, spending several days to months in NYC parks before heading north in late winter/early spring. New York magazine got the story right. Great! We need most accurate information...from everyone. Thanks New York magazine - and a huge Thank You to Ward Stone who through the years has done much to understand what is happening to the wildlife of NYC and New York State. Ward does it despite a critically small budget and the efforts of many in government to inhibit him from providing accurate information to the media and anyone who will listen. Robert DeCandido, PhD (NYC) *************************************************** As you can see, Mr Blonsky makes the statement that no hawks or other raptors were poisoned by 'the active ingredient' used in his baiting program. Yet the baiting station pictured above shows one of the many stations placed all over the park and more importantly in Palemale & Lola's hunting grounds. The active ingredient in the poison (Contrac) used is Bromadiolone. Here is a necropsy report of a red-tailed hawk found dead from this deadly poison: I have been photographing the red-tailed hawks in Central Park for almost eight years now. Over the years I observed Palemale, Lola, other red-tails and owls catching and eating a great deal of rats and mice. During these years I have noticed several ‘Rodent Baiting Stations’ in Central Park and also around many buildings surrounding Central Park. These baiting stations worry me continually. I brought my concerns to the Central Park Conservancy namely Douglas Blonsky, the Conservancy’s President. Mr Blonsky set up a meeting for me with his staff member Neal Calvanese. Neal Calvanese told me at a meeting with him on March 21, 2007 in his office at the ‘Yard’ in Central Park that the Conservancy has no intention to stop their habit of rodent poisoning. Mr Calvanese told me that the Conservancy’s priority was keeping rats and mice out of the eyesight of the public. Mr. Calvanese claimed that the poison used in Central Park is ‘safe for raptors’. I discovered recently that the poison contained in the baiting stations in Central Park is ‘Contrac’ made by Bell Labs and is indeed a dangerous rodenticide as confirmed by the National Pesticide Information Center (800) 858-7378 (contact person: Rochel on July 24, 2007. Bell Labs Info on Contrac. One link to information on Bromadiolone. ****************************************************** SAN FRANCISCO Rat poison banned from city parks Jane Kay Tuesday, March 20, 2007 The San Francisco Environment Department has temporarily banned a rat poison used in Golden Gate Park and other city parks. Three hawks and a red fox have died in Golden Gate Park after eating rodents poisoned by so-called single-feed pesticides. With a single feed, the rats' bodies are lethal enough to kill the animals that naturally eat them. The temporary ban was announced Friday before the release of a hawk that had been rehabilitated after such poisoning. The environment department's director, Jared Blumenfeld, said the poison will still be used in sewers and commercial buildings. The city's pest-control committee will discuss its approved list of pesticides in April. The city's Commission on the Environment must sign off on changes. Groups such as San Francisco ROMP, Defenders of Wildlife and American Bird Conservancy want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to restrict the use of pesticides difethialone, brodifacoum and bromadiolone because they can cause secondary poisonings in birds, foxes, raccoons, skunks and even cats and dogs. The EPA is accepting comments on the issue until May 18. ****************************************************** Urban raptors, too, fall victim to rodenticides Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Chaucer Street is a kind of village in the Berkeley flatlands. Every Fourth of July, Chaucerians - urban farmers, gardeners, brewers - celebrate with a street fair and barter session. This year, though, the holiday was marred. Around 8 a.m., Dan Rubino found a dead hawk in his 2-foot-deep backyard wading pool. He drained, moved and refilled the pool, only to have another dead hawk turn up there in the afternoon. "We were absolutely devastated," Rubino said. "We always knew there were hawks in the neighborhood. We could see and hear them, although we didn't know they had a nest." After calling local humane societies ("Nobody cared"), he sought out Lisa Owens Viani, a neighbor who he knew had fostered a brood of barn owls the year before. Owens Viani identified the two birds as juvenile Cooper's hawks, part of a family that had nested in a tall eucalyptus near Rubino's property. She had watched them learn to fly. She suggested taking their bodies to WildCare, a wildlife rehabilitation center in San Rafael, for testing. The next day, Rubino found three dead mice in his yard. "We've never had rats or mice before," he said. The adult hawks and a surviving fledgling hung around awhile, but he hasn't seen or heard them lately. The pool hasn't gone up again, and Rubino's 4-year-old son is afraid to go into the yard. Now the necropsy results are in: Liver tissue from both hawks tested positive for brodifacoum, a potent anticoagulant rodenticide. Brodifacoum, the lethal ingredient in D-Con, Talon and Havoc rodent baits, kills by causing internal bleeding, which results in intense thirst. The hawks may have been desperate for water. The results would strongly suggest they had eaten rats or mice that had consumed the poison. Ralph Pericoli, who runs the Cooper's Hawk Intensive Nesting Survey, a volunteer project of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, knew those hawks too. Berkeley, despite its dovish proclivities, is prime habitat for Cooper's hawks, with the highest density, nesting success and nesting productivity of any urban area studied. The Chaucer Street hawks lived in one of 13 nests Pericoli monitored this year, 10 of which fledged young. What's the attraction? Mature American elms, western ash and other street trees; abundant bird feeders concentrating avian prey in one spot; and "people aren't shooting them as much as they used to." Cooper's hawks, agile short-winged bird hunters, are accipiters - the "true hawks" of falconry. In wildlands, nesting Coops are hard to approach. City hawks, though, seem oblivious to barking dogs and clanging garbage trucks. A few years back, juvenile Cooper's hawks enlivened an outdoor production of Euripides' "The Bacchae" in Berkeley's John Hinkel Park, screaming and diving above the stage. About those bird feeders: Birds do make up about 85 percent of the hawks' diet, mostly mourning doves, rock pigeons and robins. But they catch a significant number of rodents. Pericoli thinks juvenile hawks may be attracted to rats and mice because they're easier to catch - ideal starter prey. But those rodents may carry a toxic load. Brodifacoum and other "second-generation anticoagulants"- bromadiolone and difethialone - were introduced in the late 1970s after rodents developed resistance to older compounds like warfarin. Small doses are lethal. The catch is that the victim doesn't die immediately; it may continue to feed on the poisoned bait for several days as the brodifacoum in its body builds up to many times the lethal amount. And even if the bait is indoors, the rodent may wander outside, where it's vulnerable to wild predators and domestic pets. The American Bird Conservancy's database of pesticide poisoning incidents contains hundreds of records of birds of prey - red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, great horned owls, eastern screech owls, golden eagles - killed by brodifacoum. Even mountain lions have fallen victim. Last year, the poisoning of a red-shouldered hawk in Golden Gate Park prompted the San Francisco Commission for the Environment to ban outdoor use of second-generation anticoagulants. In January, after years of inaction, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed restricting the use of brodifacoum, bromadiolone and difethialone to trained, certified pesticide applicators while still allowing outdoor use. The EPA says a final decision will be issued this fall. From WildCare to the EPA, it's agreed that the best defense against rodent problems is sanitation and exclusion: removing food sources, sealing openings in structures. Several Bay Area companies offer nontoxic rodent control. Ironically, the use of brodifacoum and other anticoagulants is killing our best natural allies against rodent pests, the hawks and owls. On a neighborhood level, Viani has distributed flyers to homes and businesses, trying to educate Berkeleyans about the collateral damage these heavy-duty poisons can cause. WildCare, its Hungry Owl Project and a group called Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley are also spreading the word about nontoxic pest control alternatives and the ecological services performed by raptors. Urban Cooper's hawks, writes Pericoli, "deliver wildness to us" - and their loss would leave the urban forest a lesser place. ----------------------------------------------------------- Dr Niles Illinois Department of Agriculture Centralia Animal Disease Laboratory 9732 Shattuc Road Centralia, IL 62801-5858 618.532.6701 TDD: 217.524.6858 FAX: 618.532.1195 --------------------- Resources: -- Cooper's Hawk Intensive Nesting Survey: Report Berkeley nests and other sightings to Allen Fish, afish@parksconservancy.org or (415) 331-0730, ext. 2. -- American Bird Conservancy's Pesticides and Birds Campaign: www.abcbirds.org/pesticides. -- The Hungry Owl Project: www.hungryowl.org -- Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley: kboib.org Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan are freelance nature and garden writers in Berkeley. E-mail them at home@sfchronicle.com.