{"id":1436,"date":"2015-04-23T09:49:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T16:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=1436"},"modified":"2022-08-01T12:48:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T19:48:28","slug":"thousand-oaks-joins-other-area-cities-in-opposing-anticoagulants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2015\/04\/23\/thousand-oaks-joins-other-area-cities-in-opposing-anticoagulants\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousand Oaks joins other area cities in opposing anticoagulants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rat poisons blamed for harming local predators<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Source of this article: The Thousand Oaks Acorn, April 23, 2015<\/a><\/div>\n
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The Thousand Oaks City Council has approved a resolution urging businesses and residents not to sell or use a type of rodent poison blamed for harming wildlife.<\/div>\n
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The resolution, passed April 14, discourages the use of anticoagulant rodenticides to kill rats, gophers, ground squirrels and other rodents. Rodents that consume the lethal bait may be eaten by children, pets or wild animals, which can then become sick or die. The city does not have the legal authority to enact an outright ban on rodenticides.<\/p>\n

\"WILDLIFE\u2014Bobcats<\/a>

WILDLIFE\u2014Bobcats are among the predators threatened by the use of anticoagulants.<\/p><\/div>\n

The council also directed city staff not to use the poison unless there is an extreme threat to public safety. The city stopped using anticoagulant rodenticides in the maintenance of city facilities and landscaping a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a better way to control the rodent population,\u201d Mayor Al Adam said during last week\u2019s City Council meeting. \u201cVirtually all the (apex) predators in the Santa Monica Mountains have rodenticides in them\u2014coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions. It\u2019s taking a toll. To me, wildlife is an asset to be protected. The protection of the wildlife trumps the convenience of these anticoagulants.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council also approved the development of an outreach and education campaign to inform the public about the harmful effects of the poison and to offer alternative methods of rodent control. Closing trashcan lids, keeping pet food inside and sealing buildings are some of the ways to prevent rodent infestations.<\/p>\n

Before the vote, several people asked the council to approve the resolution and outreach campaign.<\/p>\n

T.O. resident Carol Smith emphasized the importance of educating the public about the poison\u2019s effect on wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe they would be horrified to learn that they\u2019ve inadvertently poisoned a barn owl, for example, that they enjoy seeing flying around on the trails, or a hawk, or a bobcat,\u201d she said. \u201cThey need to know there are common-sense alternatives that are safe and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone was in favor of the resolution.<\/p>\n

Ray Sobrino, owner of Conejo Termite and Pest Control, said that anticoagulant rodenticides are a very good bait that helps reduce the local rat population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are having a rat epidemic in Thousand Oaks,\u201d he said. \u201cRats are a very difficult pest to control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Wilson, the city\u2019s landscape supervisor, said the city has been using snap traps and Fumitoxin, a fumigant that can be applied inside a burrow by a licensed operator, to control rodents.<\/p>\n

Restaurants that place bait stations containing anticoagulant rodenticides outside their establishments can instead use snap or electric traps, Wilson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rat poisons blamed for harming local predators Source of this article: The Thousand Oaks Acorn, April 23, 2015 The Thousand Oaks City Council has approved a resolution urging businesses and residents not to sell or use a type of rodent poison blamed for harming wildlife. The resolution, passed April 14, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7,50,20,27,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conejo-valley","category-environment","category-habitat-improvement","category-health","category-mountain-lions","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3542,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1436\/revisions\/3542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}