Retailers urged to ditch rat poison in wake of owl deaths

Georgia Cameron crouches on the grass, gently removing a stiff mass of tattered feathers and bloodied talons. In the leafy suburbs of northern Sydney, reports of dead Powerful owls are increasing. This time, Cameron is called to a backyard in Beecroft.

Photographs are taken and Cameron packages the body of the owl to freeze in preparation for a necropsy, an animal autopsy.

The bird is an older male, weighing 1.5 kilograms with a wingspan of 1.4 metres. The necropsy finds telltale signs of poisoning, with the results of a liver sample showing high quantities of the chemical brodifacoum, the active ingredient in second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs.

“It’s quite soul destroying that despite all of our local education attempts, we lost another bird to rodenticides,” says Cameron.

“If you’d seen as many dead Powerful owls as I have, you’d think very carefully about what (rodenticide products) you put on your shelves.”

: A dead Powerful owl at Cheltenham in 2022.

: Another dead Powerful owl found in Beecroft in 2021.

: The corpse of an owl found in Epping in 2023.

The Anticoagulant Rodenticides Chemical Review, a three-year inquiry by the federal government body the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), is expected to release its findings in February. Among its considerations are whether to recommend the banning of SGARs.

But after a decade of volunteering for BirdLife Australia and Sydney Wildlife Rescue and advocating for the discontinuation of the poison Cameron said it was frustrating to see large sections of rat poison lining the aisles of popular retailers such as Bunnings.

The global anticoagulant rodenticides industry is worth over $8.2 billion annually.

In Australia, SGARs are readily available for bulk purchase to both household consumers and pest control organisations. One kilo of Ratsak Fast Action is enough to kill over 150 rats.

“They’re blood thinners,” Holly Parsons, manager of priority sites at BirdLife Australia, says, grimacing as she describes the process by which the chemicals prevent blood clotting, causing animals to bleed internally and die after several days.

“They (SGARs) don’t immediately break down in a rodent’s system, so they have the potential to build up through the food chain.”

A 2021 BirdLife study discovered rat poison in 37 out of 38 dead Powerful owls, a vulnerable species found in the east-coast Australian bushland.

Parsons has been at the forefront of BirdLife’s Act for Birds campaign against SGARs for the last three years and believes that retailers have failed to provide customers with the education required to make environmentally conscious choices.

“People assume that because you can buy (rat poison) on the shelf, they are safe for wildlife as long as you follow the directions,” she adds. “That’s absolutely not the case.”

Cameron and Parsons say the situation is dire, with the APVMA’s review verdict already pushed back several times, and amid concerns the outcome may be “tokenistic”.

“There are always competing interests,” Parsons claims. “You’d like to think they (the APVMA) have the best interests of the environment at heart, but they’re ultimately beholden to their constituents.

“If the APVMA doesn’t make this decision now, it won’t be revisited for at least a decade. In the meantime, thousands of animals will continue to die. The blanket removal of SGARs is the only option to protect our native birds.”

Parsons says she hopes the APVMA is transparent in its decision-making, and warns stronger protections are necessary to prevent commercial retail concerns being prioritised over the environment.

Major retailers Bunnings, Woolworths and Coles say they will not regulate rat poisons sales unless they are directed to by the APVMA.

When contacted by Central News, a spokesperson for Bunnings said the company “provide[s] choice for customers on the best solution to their specific rodent problem”, adding “the rodenticide products we sell are in line with guidance from the Federal regulator, the APVMA.”

“Businesses need to take not just financial and personal accountability, but environmental accountability too,” says Simon Brown, a wildlife officer at Willoughby Council.

After council rangers discovered a Barn owl roost containing over 30 rat skulls in a baiting area, Brown began researching alternatives to second-generation poisons.

We find lots of casualties in the urban landscape… Tawny Frogmouths and other nocturnal species often turn up dead with no apparent reason.

Simon Brown, wildlife officer

Eight years later, he monitors compliance with an informal policy that ensures all private contractors employed by Willoughby Council use first-generation alternatives such as Racumin instead of SGARs.

Despite his efforts, Brown believes further efforts are required to protect wildlife outside council-managed land.

“We find lots of casualties in the urban landscape… Tawny Frogmouths and other nocturnal species often turn up dead with no apparent reason,” he says.

“I assume rodenticide poisoning is a significant contributing factor.”

Brown says government decisions often lag behind research, but the public was increasingly vocal on environmental issues which can drive policy reform in local electorates.

“Rodenticides are probably the number one issue in our [wildlife] community,” he says.

“It’s almost every couple of months that I receive a direct inquiry from someone making a request for further information about SGARs.”

Wildlife advocate Megan Bernard is attempting to mobilise the increasing public outcry in NSW. Her passion for native birds began over 20 years ago when she started volunteering at animal conservation organisations. In August last year, she published a petition calling for the urgent restriction of SGAR sales, which now has over 11,000 signatures.

She says she has contacted Bunnings managing director, Michael Schneider, directly but has not had a response.