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It’s time to ban inhumane predacides in Canada

Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is currently consulting Canadians on how the humaneness of pesticides to control predators (predacides) could be considered during their approval and use.

There are currently three active ingredients registered to control large vertebrate predators in Canada: sodium fluoroacetate (Compound 1080), sodium cyanide and strychnine. For the purpose of this consultation, the focus is limited to large vertebrate predators, for example, wolves, coyotes and bears.

Consultation Questions:

  1. Should PMRA include humaneness considerations as part of the pesticide registration process for products intended to control large vertebrate predators? If so, what would be the best options and approaches for doing so?
  2. Should PMRA develop public information, such as best practices / standards on humaneness considerations, that pesticide users could take into account when deciding whether to use a pesticide for controlling large vertebrate predators?  If so, what kind of information would be most useful?
  3. In either case, what should be the parameters to measure humaneness?

For more background information, please visit the PMRA’s homepage for the consultation. 

The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) has made a submission calling for humaneness to be considered in the pesticide registration process. VHS opposes the use of predacides, including sodium fluoroacetate (Compound 1080), sodium cyanide and strychnine, on the grounds that they are not only inhumane and violate animal welfare guidelines, but that they also pose an unacceptable risk to biodiversity, the environment and public safety. Therefore, we are calling on the Minister of Health and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to prohibit predacides under the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA). Read our complete submission here.

We are encouraging our supporters to participate in this public consultation before the April18th deadline. Please feel free to use our submission as a guide, but be sure to personalize your own (duplicate submissions are discouraged).