04/13/2026
Want to understand why you shouldn't use anticoagulant rodenticides? Here you go...this lovely lady was noted hanging out in a yard in Lexington yesterday. She hadn't moved for an abnormally long time, and the home owner got concerned. She reached out to a wildlife rehabilitator (thank you NEW- ARC (USA)!), who couldn't take the bird, but posted the situation on a message board for rehabbers.
The picture you see is of when she came in to me at Heal Veterinary Clinic. She was alive at this point, but barely. She survived long enough for a very brief exam and then died. She had blood all over her body and coming out her mouth. The blood we drew still hasn't clotted 24 hours later. This is what rat poisons do to our wildlife. I am SO VERY tired of watching these majestic creatures die!
She was a young (1-4yr old) female Red Tailed Hawk. She could have eaten 1,500 rats a year. Multiplied by her 10-15 year life span that could have been as many as 21,000 rats. AND at age 3 she would have started breeding, and could have produced 2-3 offspring a year that would have also happily eaten rats. Instead however she is in my freezer waiting for a necropsy to positively show that she had rodenticides in her system...which is kind of a forgone conclusion. Tufts Wildlife Clinic as demonstrated that every single Red Tailed Hawk they tested had some rodenticides in it. Every Hawk I have tested, as well as every fox and coyote, are the same.
Here is my ask:
1) STOP USING ANTICOAGULANT RODENTICIDES
2) There is a bill in the Massachusetts senate to ban these chemicals. It is up for debate on April 15th, 2026. PLEASE CALL, EMAIL, WRITE YOUR SENATOR! To be specific this is the Mass Ready Act S. 3050 Amendment #3
