By Nicole Rivard, originally published in The Hartford Courant

On Feb. 28, Connecticut’s Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff recalled how traumatizing it was to see a Cooper’s hawk flailing around in his driveway after eating a rodent poisoned by anticoagulant rodenticides during compelling testimony at the General Assembly’s Environment Committee public hearing for HB 5217, An act concerning the use of certain rodenticides.

The too skinny bird was having seizures — falling on its back, flapping its wings and trying to get back up again. It was clear the image still haunts the senator. He told the committee members he supports the bill but asked them to strengthen it.

Friends of Animals also pressed for HB 5217 to go further too. As it was, it would not protect birds of prey, it would have only protected the people licensed to use second generation anticoagulant rodenticides. The 322 people already licensed to use SGARs in the state would have continued to be able to use them, putting black bait boxes outside grocery stores, in housing developments and town parks, to mention a few, whether a so-called rodent problem exists or not.

Read the full piece here.

See also: FoA to CT legislators: Ban anticoagulant rodenticides killing birds of prey