In Melbourne we are incredibly fortunate to share our home in the city with some amazing wildlife, including the charismatic peregrine falcons that nest atop a building in the CBD each year.
In case anyone is unfamiliar with this story, each year a pair of hawks nest and raise their young at 367 Collins Street. They have been nesting here since 1991 and every year all the action is caught on camera and streamed live. Watching the chicks hatch, grow and make their first flight is simply delightful.
But unfortunately in Victoria many of our native birds such as hawks, owls and eagles are poisoned by so-called ‘second generation’ rodent venoms. These toxins are commonly sold in supermarkets and hardware stores, but can harm native wildlife (and even house cats and dogs) when they eat poisoned rats and mice.
I recently raised this issue in the Victorian Parliament and introduced some new legislation to prevent the sale of these dangerous poisons.
The good news is that there are effective alternatives! We have wildlife-safe rodenticides (so-called “first generation” rodenticides). But unfortunately, there’s no easy way for an ordinary person like you or me to tell the difference between the wildlife-safe poisons and the dangerous ones without looking at the long list of complicated ingredients on the package.
Confusingly, many of the dangerous poisons and wildlife-safe poisons have the same brand names – such as RatSak. Often the dangerous ones are labeled with things like “fast acting”. Both work to kill rats and mice so we don’t have to use the dangerous second generation poisons in our homes.
In Europe and the US, where this is also a major problem, governments have banned the general sale of harmful second-generation poisons while continuing to allow farmers access to them under strict conditions. The laws I proposed in the Victorian Parliament would have done the same thing here.
I am sorry to say that the Victorian Labor Government has not backed the new legislation this time but in good news they have promised to investigate this important threat to our wildlife and I am confident that we will take action soon will see.
If you want to learn more about the problem to avoid buying the dangerous poisons, there is a good guide at actforbirds.org/ratpoison.
The Greens and I will continue the fight to protect Victoria’s native species. We recently launched our nature restoration plan, which we will take with us to the state elections in November.
Our plan includes a $1 billion per year Zero Extinction Fund to restore habitats and fund the restoration of endangered species of plants, animals, birds and fish native to Victoria in 2000 are. You can read more about our plan here: greens.org.au/vic/zero-extinction.
If there is anything my team and I can help you with, please get in touch [email protected].
