The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) has agreed to undertake a scientific review of anticoagulant rodenticide products in response to a petition submitted by Harvard\u2019s Animal Law & Policy Clinic on behalf of a coalition of Massachusetts residents. The Petition called on MDAR\u2019s Pesticide Subcommittee to immediately suspend anticoagulant rodenticide product registration and undertake an individual review of those products, which the coalition believes will show that anticoagulant rodenticides cause \u201cunreasonable adverse effects to the environment.\u201d On December 17, 2024, the Pesticide Subcommittee voted to undertake a scientific review, which it represented will form the basis for the individual review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus far, the Pesticide Subcommittee has been silent on the coalition\u2019s request to suspend registrations. The Pesticide Subcommittee has the authority to suspend registrations whenever it \u201cappears\u201d that a pesticide \u201cmay cause adverse effects on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To date, the Clinic has submitted to the Pesticide Subcommittee hundreds of pages of reports and studies showing the adverse effects of anticoagulant rodenticides on Massachusetts wildlife, including eagles, red-tailed hawks, Cooper\u2019s hawks, great horned owls, barred owls, and red foxes. Coalition member Cape Ann Wildlife has submitted documentation of 60 recent necropsies for Massachusetts wildlife who died after ingesting anticoagulant rodenticides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy organization has requested necropsies from HEAL veterinary clinic for eight dead raptors in just the past six weeks, all of which tested positive for lethal levels of anticoagulants,” says coalition member and Save Arlington Wildlife founder, Laura Kiesel. “Considering these are only very local-level losses, one can guess at the statewide scale of suffering and death these poisons are causing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Report after report shows that Massachusetts wildlife are being poisoned after consuming prey who have ingested anticoagulant rodenticide products, which prevent blood from clotting, causing the victims to die slowly of massive hemorrhaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we appreciate MDAR taking a step in the right direction by agreeing to review anticoagulant rodenticide products,\u201d said Mary Hollingsworth, Harvard\u2019s Animal Law Clinic Director, \u201cthe agency has the power to protect companion animals and wildlife from gruesome deaths now by suspending product registrations.\u201d It is important to note that in the absence of a suspension of anticoagulant rodenticide products, wildlife rehabilitators and pet owners will continue to shoulder both the financial and emotional burden of caring for poisoned animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The coalition\u2019s petition enjoys broad public support; the following organizations have submitted letters of support to the Pesticide Subcommittee: the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, American Bird Conservancy, Mystic River Watershed Association, Charles River Watershed Association, Raptors are the Solution, Earthwise Aware, Green & Open Somerville, Mass Pollinator Network, Friends of Spy Pond Park, Friends of the Fells, WildCARE, Friends of Menotomy Rocks Park, and Save Somerville Wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Image: Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk, Arlington, MA (Jan. 2025); Photo Credit: Toshia McCabe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) has agreed to undertake a scientific review of anticoagulant rodenticide products in response to a petition submitted by Harvard\u2019s Animal Law & Policy Clinic on behalf of a coalition of Massachusetts residents. The Petition called on MDAR\u2019s Pesticide Subcommittee to immediately suspend anticoagulant rodenticide product registration and undertake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11947,"featured_media":3533,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3532","news-article","type-news-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article\/3532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11947"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article\/3532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinics.law.harvard.edu\/animallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}