(Washington,
D.C., October 16 , 2012) Defenders of Wildlife, American Bird
Conservancy, Natural
Resources Defense Council, and Audubon of Kansas have urged the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to reject an application by Scimetrics to use the rodenticide
Kaput-D for the control of black-tailed prairie dogs in Colorado, Kansas,
Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and
Wyoming.
The groups
say that because Kaput-D, which contains the anticoagulant diphacinone that
causes poisoned animals to bleed to death, is not selective in the animals
it impacts, it has a high probability of killing non-target wildlife, including
species protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Bald and Golden Eagle
Protection Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Black-tailed
prairie dogs are regularly exterminated from ranchland as pests, primarily
because they are thought to compete with cattle for forage. Their populations
have been reduced by as much as 95 percent of their historical numbers and
continue to decline.
In a letter to the EPA, the groups point out that the proposed
registration decision is based on information provided by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) for another pesticide, Rozol Prairie Dog Bait, which
contains a different active ingredient, chlorophacinone.
The groups
stress that the EPA cannot simply insert Kaput-D in place of Rozol in its
scientific assessment. They advise EPA to complete formal “Section 7”
Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultations with FWS on endangered species
impacts from the use of this specific pesticide. They suggest that EPA complete
such a consultation prior to registration, both to avoid litigation risk, and
so that endangered species concerns may properly be analyzed and necessary use
restrictions incorporated.
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