Matt Stellino says rat poisons end up killing scores of innocent animals up and down the food chain.
On Tuesday night the Animal Justice Party councillor convinced Campbelltown Council to stop using rodenticides, also known as SGARs (Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides).
His notice of motion calling on council to no longer use SGARs on any land it owns or manages received unanimous support when put to the vote.
As part of the motion, from now on council will not recommend or encourage the use of SGARs to private landholders in any of council’s messaging or information packs.
And where pest management is done by an external provider, council will update contracts as soon as possible to include a clause that inhibits the use of SGARs.
SGARs are the most widely used rat poison in Australia, but because they are slow-acting and long-lasting have massive knock-on effects, killing owls, magpies, ravens, eagles, falcons, currawongs, quolls, goannas, snakes, and even Murray cod.
Cr Stellino told council the problem with SGARs was that they took a long time to break down, maybe up to six months.
“This is a scourge that works its way both up and down the food chain,” Cr Stellino said after the council meeting.
“Last year, NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall wanted to use SGARs to counter the mouse plague, describing them as the equivalent of napalm.
“He was right to make that connection, because napalm called into question the morality of military tactics being used at the time, and had devastating environmental impacts.
“Similarly, SGARs inflict far more harm than we intend. People purchase them off the shelf to kill mice and rats, but they are mislabelled as rat poison – what they are really selling you is owl poison, quoll poison, goanna poison, currawong poison.
“They even travel all the way up to kill apex predators such as eagles, who don’t even eat mice or rats, they eat the birds who eat the mice,’’ Cr Stellino said.
“Wildlife carers and citizens have been expressing their dismay for years – they have been finding owl after owl dead on the ground.
“Birdlife Australia has been trying to raise awareness of this for years. It’s time we made a change at the level of government.
“I am very happy that Campbelltown Council will no longer use SGARs,’’ he said.
“We have endangered powerful owls in our area to protect. Birdlife Australia commissioned a study last year analysing deceased powerful owls on Sydney’s urban fringes – nearly all of them had SGARs present in their liver.
“Local Government NSW, the peak body of councils, is also writing to the NSW Government to ask that SGARs no longer be commercially available. We urge them to listen to our calls.
“In the meantime, I ask individuals seeking to reduce the number of mice or rats they live with to leave SGARs on the shelf. Read Birdlife Australia’s toolkit to learn how you can avoid napalming the wildlife in your neighbourhood.”
Positive idea to save wildlife and pets.
This is a very important issue. Is there a way that a link that leads to the tool kit, instead of people trying to find it themselves? This is especially important for time-poor families and those with disabilities.