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This is ABSOLUTELY true!!! There is NO such thing as safe poison, nor poison without a HIGH secondary poisoning risk. Any vet who says otherwise should have his/her license revoked. Do your own research online, and you'll find that poisons advertised as "low secondary poisoning risk" products simply have a more concentrated amount of poison in them....the THEORY (not reality) is that since the poison is more concentrated, the rat will need less of the bait in order to die. The problem is that rats don't eat "just one bite", whether it contains enough poison or not. The feeding habits of rats are such that they eat far more than they need to survive (or die, in this case). Also, the poison doesn't act instantly (obviously) and by the time the poison attacks the rat's system, the rat has already eaten plenty of it, increasing the toxin levels in their bodies to WELL above "low risk of secondary poisoning". PLUS, when rats are dying from the poisoning, it is their nature to crawl away, not go back in their nest. This is true of most animals, they go off to die so as to protect their nest (and offspring) from predators...the smell of decaying body would draw predators to the nest and the predator would then kill the nestmates and/or babies---so crawling away to die is an instinct designed to protect the rest of the bloodline. When the rats do die, their bodies are usually very accessible to cats, dogs, and other animals who then eat the dead rat and become fatally poisoned themselves. Knowing how rats and other predators eat is crucial to knowing what is, AND IN THE CASE OF ANY POISON, isn't safe.
I am comfortable with my decision to use the bait as I have.
Would I feed it directly to my cats or dogs? Heavens no but used as it's intended to be used I have found it to be a safe way to kill off the rat population.
I tried all the "safe" methods that were suggested because I was afraid of poisoning my barn cats and outside dogs. NONE of them worked at all or very little. After much research and by talking to several vets about using "Just One Bite".....not just local vets either but vets at the state level and toxicology dept heads.....I bought locking bait boxes and put the bait out. You can say what you want about the vets I talked to, but I'm sorry I trust what they have to say much more than your opinion or online research. Did any say it was 100% safe, no they did not, but they all said that used as directed the risk to any of my barn cats or dogs was minimal.
I disagree with your statement that most of the rats will crawl away from their tunnels to die.....I have not found that to be true. I found some in the pens, but most died in their tunnels and for a time during the second and third weeks of treatment the odor of death coming from under my coops in their tunnels was not pleasant.
I've had chickens for 50+ years and never had a problem with rats until the last 18 months or so. Once they get a foothold they are next to impossible to get rid of without resorting to poison. Believe it or not I was once just as adament about not using poison as you. Once I actually did the research and talked to people who know what they're talking about I changed my mind.
Do what you wish, and claim what you will, but I happen to know for a fact that you and your vets are wrong. Period.
I, too, can back up everything I say with the support of the majority of veterinarians, regarding both the action of poison and rodent behavior---and frankly, common sense. If people choose to use poison, that is their prerogtive, but I WILL NOT report inaccurate, patently FALSE information that any poison is safe from HIGH risk (and not minimal risk, as you claim) of secondary poisoning. It very simply and most definitely is NOT.