Youth Action for Wildlife
Image by Andrew Silcocks
Our Wildlife Needs Your Help!
STOP THE USE OF SGARs (Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides)
Who are we?
We are a group of high school students who are campaigning for the Australian Government to ban Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs). Our mission is to educate the community on the detrimental effects they are having on our wildlife and pets and to encourage the use of alternative methods for rodent control.
What are SGARs?
Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides
SGARs are a type of rat bait that take longer to break down in the body than their alternatives. Because of this, they remain in the body after the rodent has died, and can be transferred to any animal that eats the dead rodent. This in turn leads to secondary poisoning, with the predator dying because of the poison. Because of how harmful they are, these poisons have been banned in the EU, UK, Canada, and America.​
What Can You Do?
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In addition to signing our general petition we need as many people as possible to respond to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA)—they have finally released their recommendations regarding rodenticide use, and, despite acknowledging the overwhelming evidence that SGARs are causing serious secondary poisoning of native animals, they have not recommended banning them but rather some wholly ineffective measures—selling smaller quantities and the use of bait boxes. Bait boxes are useless—they only prevent a very small number of non-target primary posioning (e.g., your dog) but rats just go in and eat the bait, then walk out again with a dose of bait inside them, waiting for an owl, etc., to eat them and be poisoned themselves. Birdlife Australia have set up an online form to respond to the APVMA—please fill this in before March 16th—it's our last chance!
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Don't use SGARs! - if you use a pest control company tell them you don't want them to use SGARs at your home; make sure they can tell you what they are using. Ask the same questions of your work, school etc
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Ideally don't use any poisons - avoid attracting rats in the first place (see leaflet below). Poisoning of native wildlife still occurs with FGARs by direct (primary) consumption.
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Use traps rather than poisons (although make sure you are dealing with rat or mice as native species such as bandicoots and mardos can be killed in traps - never use traps outside or in roof spaces etc accessible by native wildlife)
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Most importantly avoid attracting the rats and mice in the first place (see below)
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Sign our petition to get SGARs off the shelves
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Approach your local supermarket/hardware store - make them aware
