California Goes to the Rats
Sacramento’s solution to rodent-borne disease? Ban rodenticides.
Rising homelessness in California has spurred a rodent boom and resurgence of medieval disease.
So naturally Democrats in the state Legislature want to ban rat poison.
Earlier this year a rat infestation in downtown Los Angeles near a homeless encampment led to an outbreak
of typhus. CatsUSA Pest Control, which was hired to investigate, warned that “poor sanitary conditions”
including human waste and hypodermic needles created a “harborage for rodents.” In Los Angeles County
cases of flea-borne typhus more than doubled since 2012, with 109 cases reported last year.
L.A. isn’t alone. There were so many rats scurrying around the California EPA office in Sacramento this summer
that the agency had to close its outdoor playground to prevent children from getting sick. After California’s EPA
applied rat poison, environmentalists howled that the pesticide could harm species that prey on rats.
Democrats in Sacramento are now moving legislation to ban “second-generation” rodenticides that are more
potent than earlier poisons against which rats have developed immunity. “Predatory species, such as raptors,
bobcats, and foxes, regularly consume rodents as part of their diet. Poisoned rodents also become more lethargic
and exhibit abnormal behavior,” a bill analysis notes. But “data are less conclusive in pointing to [anticoagulant
rodenticides] as the specific cause of death in necropsied animals.”
In other words, it’s not clear rodent poison is killing predator species. But it is clear that rodents carry diseases
that are making Californians seriously ill.
The bill, sponsored by Santa Monica Assemblyman Richard Bloom, would exempt food factories, breweries and
wineries from the ban. No doubt Napa Valley vintners and their customers will be grateful. While liberals say the
solution is better sanitation, they also protest whenever government officials try to clean up homeless camps or
propose building shelters in their neighborhoods.
Low-income folks who live near homeless populations as usual will suffer the greatest harm from the rat-poison ban.
If only there were an antidote to California’s toxic progressive politics.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-goes-to-the-rats-11565216091
