Town of Oliver to ponder saying no to rodenticides after urging from BC SPCA about poison travelling up the food chain

Photo: Contributed

Oliver town council will be pondering a potential shift away from using rodenticides for pest control on town properties, following a letter sent by the BC SPCA.

At Monday evening's meeting, council received the letter as part of the agenda package, urging action and pointing to the potential for rodenticides to travel up the food chain and kill predators.

"Oliver is the home of SORCO Raptor Rehabilitation centre which recently admitted a poisoned Golden Eagle from Grand Forks," Dr. Sara Dubois, BC SPCA chief scientific officer, wrote.

Dubois points to North Vancouver, which recently adopted a bylaw change that the BC SPCA calls progressive, which has since been used as a template for other municipalities to speed along the process, including recently in Salmon Arm.

Coun. Larry Schwartzenberger was in support of directing staff to bring forward a report on current rodenticide practices at a future Committee of the Whole meeting for discussion.

"Not necessarily a bylaw, I think a policy would certainly do it," Schwartzenberger said.

Director of operations Shawn Goodsell provided a brief overview of Oliver's practices in the meantime, explaining they contract out pest control.

"They do use the rodenticide or anticoagulant, I tried to touch base with somebody at the company that we use, they did say that there's other ways of doing it, it's more expensive at the trap. There's more visits," Goodsell explained, adding that the town currently spends about $4,000 per year on the program.

"There's 12 exterior traps that are used on our properties, 10 for small rodents and there's six inside in three separate buildings."

His initial understanding is that when using the right doses, the poison should not be passed on.

"But we'll have to get more information for council in the future."

Council voted unanimously to hear back more at an upcoming Committee of the Whole meeting.