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6/3/2025
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Senate OKs bill to ban sale of rat poisons endangering wildlife
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Bill establishes pilot program for integrated pest management
STATE HOUSE – The Senate today approved legislation sponsored by Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Melissa Murray to phase out dangerous rat poisons that harm wildlife and create a pilot program to help communities with safer alternatives for rodent control.
The legislation (2025-S 0651A) would prohibit the sale of first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides to consumers in Rhode Island beginning March 1, 2026, and prohibit the sale of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
Anticoagulant rodenticides kill by preventing blood clotting, and although users are targeting rats, there is no way to prevent consumption by nontarget species. Raptors, who are a natural predator of rodents, are particularly imperiled by their use.
“These products are meant to kill rats, but they do great harm to raptors and other wildlife, and they are a risk to children and pets. Their poison accumulates in the bodies of species who eat rodents who have consumed the products, and ironically winds up killing raptors, who are an important part of the food chain that controls the rat population,” said Chairwoman Murray (D-Dist. 24, Woonsocket, North Smithfield.)
First generation anticoagulants require multiple feedings to kill, which means a rodent that has eaten them will continue to live with them in its system, transferring some of that poison to a predator if it is eaten before consuming enough poison to be lethal. Since raptors can eat thousands of rodents a year, they can be sickened and killed by their cumulative effect. Second-generation anticoagulants are more potent, and can be lethal in a single dose. They also pose a danger if predators or scavengers eat an affected rodent or if another animal eats the product.
To kickstart the implementation of safer methods of rodent control, the bill authorizes a voluntary pest management pilot program for municipalities to implement and track the effectiveness of integrated pest management, to start July 1, 2026. Integrated pest management is a science-based approach to managing rodents using a variety of methods to prevent and treat rodent concerns including addressing sanitation and landscaping, promotion of natural predators, manufactured alternatives to pesticides and other methods of prevention, reduction, and mitigation including rat birth control. Currently in use in New York City, rat contraceptives are a product eaten by rodents that prevents the growth of the rat population by interfering with rodents’ fertility.
Municipalities that choose to participate in pilot program would designate rodent mitigation areas in which to deploy integrated pest management, and study its results after at least six months.
The bill sets up a designated fund for the pilot program, and directs the Department of Environmental
Management to seek grant and philanthropic resources to help support the program.
The bill would sunset on Oct. 1, 2028, unless extended by the General Assembly.
The legislation, which is strongly supported by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, now goes to the House of Representatives, where Rep. Rebecca Kislak (D-Dist. 4, Providence) is sponsoring its companion (2025-H 5704).
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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