Laguna Beach is banning the use in city parks, buildings and landscaping of a poisonous bait that causes rodents to bleed internally and die.
The City Council on Tuesday, May 26, unanimously approved the new law that will require city contractors not use the anticoagulant bait and is also urges local businesses to not make the product available and residents not to use it on their private properties. The council will have to finalize the ban with a second vote.
“The rats and mice often get eaten by other animals, and it can have bad effects,” said Councilman Steve Dicterow, who asked his colleagues to support the ban he sponsored to benefit predators such as owls, hawks, and coyotes.
City Clerk Lisette Chel-Walker reported that her office received 60 emails in support of the city’s ban.
“I think this was an easy decision for the council and a first step in the right direction,” Dicterow said following the vote.
The Laguna Beach ban follows an effort by the League of California Cities in 2018 that encouraged cities throughout the state to eliminate their use of anticoagulant poisons. Malibu, Calabasas and Moorpark are among those that have passed resolutions against the deadly rat poison.
There are two types of pesticides: anticoagulants and non-anticoagulants. Anticoagulants prevent the animals’ blood from clotting once the poisonous bait is ingested and the bait can be delivered in one fatal dose or require multiple feedings before it works. Laguna Beach has been using the bait that requires multiple feedings and spending $30,000 with three licensed pest control companies.
Dicterow credited resident Judie Mancuso, who is also a member of the city’s Environmental and Sustainability Committee, for her efforts to help educate him about the poison.
“I am proud of my hometown of Laguna Beach for unanimously passing the agenda bill to do away with anticoagulant rodenticides that are used for pest control, but also indeed kill every other animal in the food chain,” said Mancuso, an animal rights advocate who founded the group Social Compassion In Legislation. “We are so fortunate to have this beautiful seaside community that we share with many land mammals and hundreds of species of birds in our open space.”
Mancuso, who has been instrumental in state legislation to protect animals on multiple levels, said she and her group urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to ban these poisons by executive order to help save the known lone male mountain lion left in the Santa Monica Mountains.
“To date, no action has been taken by the state. If we standby, we will watch our wildlife go extinct,” she said.
The city will monitor the alternative pesticide contractors will be required to use for 12 months; if any rodent outbreaks are harmful to public health, the ban doesn’t stop the city from using the anticoagulant-based bait for a limited amount of time, officials said.
