Hi Tweeters,

Julia, I'm glad that you mentioned the dangers of rat poison in your last
sentence. My dad was hiring a company to put out rat poison in our yard earlier
this year. This made me very nervous and I called my vet who is a bird
specialist. She said (as you also mentioned) that if the rat has not completely
metabolized the poison by the time something (raptor, dog, cat) eats it then that
second animal in turn gets poisoned. We took down the bait stations immediately
after hearing that. The companies will claim they do not harm wildlife or pets
but...
I'd say removing easy to get compost, bird seed, etc would help deter rats
without the dangers of possibly poisoning non-target animals. Of course it's
more complicated if your neighbors are leaving out food.

Simone Lupson-Cook
Seattle, WA
_Zingie at aol.com_ (mailto:Zingie at aol.com)




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