OkcPets Magazine July 2023

July / August 2023 • OKC Pets 11 Here’s what you can do: • Stop using fertilizing systems that in- clude herbicides and insecticides. • Tolerate weeds in your lawn. Recognize that dandelions, clovers, and wildflowers are natural to Oklahoma (green lawns are not), and they provide sustenance for insects and wildlife. They also add color to your landscape and require little time or money to maintain. • Plant pollinator gardens. • Advocate for sustainable landscaping in your community. This saves time and money, is better for the environment, conserves water, and supports wildlife. Rodenticides Rodenticides are poisons that are used to kill rodents. Generally, their targets are house mice and rats, but they are also cru- elly used to kill moles, voles, prairie dogs, squirrels, beavers, otters, and other animals that some people deem pests. Different types of rodenticides exist, but the worst are supertoxic second-generation anti- coagulant rodenticides. Those block the synthesis of vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting, and cause animals that eat the poison to die slow, agonizing deaths during four to seven days. Unfortunately, these poisons are in- discriminate and long lasting and often wreak damage well beyond their intend- ed victims. Because of a process called bioaccumulation, mice, rats, and other animals painfully killed with rodenticides can cause irreparable harm and death to other animals that eat their bodies — bald eagles, golden eagles, hawks, owls, red and gray foxes, coyotes, bobcats, snakes, and others, as well as pet dogs and cats . In addition, these unintended victims might directly take the bait intended for rats and mice, ingesting the poison and dying. To avoid using rodenticides, people often resort to glue traps. Although not as hazardous to the environment, they are another cruel and indiscriminate form of pest control. Mice might be the target, but WildCare Oklahoma also removes birds, small mammals, snakes, and toads from glue traps every year. Animals stuck on glue traps also die slowly, of dehydration and starvation. Here’s what you can do: • Never use rodenticides or glue traps. • Remove clutter because it provides the ideal habitat for rats and mice. • Repair holes and other points of entry into outbuildings and homes where you do not want mice or rats. • Allow rodents’ natural predators to thrive where you live. • Advocate for the elimination or extreme limitation of poisons that are deadly to all wildlife, pets, and humans. Lead Ammunition and Angling Equipment Lead is a toxicant that builds up in animals (and people), affecting multiple systems within the body that can lead to sickness, delays in development, and death. Lead- core bullets fragment into hundreds of pieces when they hit an animal, spreading beyond the wound channel. Even when hunters remove the bullet, lead remains in the gut piles left behind because of frag- mentation. Bald and golden eagles, other birds of prey, and a wide range of mam- mals eat those remnants, ingesting the lead along with it (source: U. S. National Park Service). They die slow, painful deaths — they slowly lose motor control, suffer cognitive declines, and then die from star- vation, dehydration, and/or organ failure. Lead ammunition has been cited as one of the top reasons California condors were pushed to the brink of extinction. A study in 2010 to 2018 by scientists from the U. S. Geological Survey, Conservation Sci- ence Global, Inc., and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service uncovered that half of all bald eagles had lead poisoning from ammunition. Angling equipment is another major hazard to wildlife. Fishing lines, lures, and hooks carelessly left behind often end up entangling, impaling, and maiming wildlife — fish, turtles, great blue herons, whooping cranes, other water birds, mal- lards, other species of ducks, geese, swans, and aquatic mammals such as North American otters and North American beavers. As animals struggle to break free of fishing lines, they often constrict even more, resulting in slow, painful loss of limbs and wings or death from strangling or starvation. Responsible hunting and angling will prevent untold suffering among nontarget wildlife encountering lead ammunition and fishing line and lures. Armadillos love grubs. Not only do they decrease the number of insects on your property, they also help aerate the soil. This white pelican is one of thousands of animals each year maimed or killed by fishing lines left behind by anglers. The line constricts blood flow and oxygen, resulting in tissue necrosis and potential loss of limb and life.