Publisher’s Notebook: Poisons and Palominos

BY ANNE SOBLE

Federal agencies are bottomless chasms where one department may have no idea what the others are doing. That’s just as well with the federal Environmental Protection Agency that has flip-flopped on Cabrillo Port, because another division has proposed new controls for rat poison that would end over-the-counter sales of the most toxic chemicals and go a long way toward protecting wildlife and pets, as well as children. The News has run a number of stories on the effect these poisons have on wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains, claiming lives of cougars, coyotes, bobcats, and many smaller animals that either eat rodents that have ingested the poison or consume fatal levels of poison-laced bait. EPA data show that rat poison has been detected in animals carcasses, as well as 27 species of birds. Under these rules, three chemicals—brodifacoum, bromodialone and difethialone—so-called second-generation anticoagulants would be curtailed. They work by inhibiting the absorption of vitamin K, which leads to internal bleeding and death. Six other rodent poisons will be available to homeowners, but these products will be sold only in tamper-resistant bait stations, making them inaccessible to animals and children. The regulations made public last week are subject to public comment for 60 days before being adopted. The rules are not as strong as they could be, as licensed pest control companies will still be able to use the controlled products, but when they use them outdoors, such as on golf courses and large greenbelt areas, they must be put in tamper-resistant bait stations that would make them inaccessible. Better bait station design is also required. It’s a first step.

A federal appeals court said horses cannot be slaughtered for food in Texas, where two of America’s three processing plants that ship horsemeat overseas are located. The decision, issued last Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court’s ruling in 2006 on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food because equines are symbolic of the Old West and an integral part of the nation’s history. The lower court, not quite as taken with Western lore, had said the Texas law was invalid because it was repealed by another statute and was preempted by federal law. However, a panel of three judges on the 5th Circuit disagreed, saying the law still stood and was still enforceable. Judge Fortunato Benavides wrote, “The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse.” About 88,000 horses, mules and other equines were slaughtered in 2005, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. The Humane Society of the United States, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, applauded the 5th Circuit decision. So do we.
Now, if it would only begin to rain.