By Lisa Kava
Upper West Side dog owners and parents of young children BE AWARE!
In the latest episode of what appears to be an ongoing story, an alarming amount of exposed rat poison was found in tree beds, on the sidewalk, and in West 75th Street, between Broadway and West End Avenue, over the past 48 hours.
On Thursday evening, June 16, at 7:30 PM, a neighborhood resident named Erika took her dog, Beti, a six-year-old terrier mix for a walk. On 75th Street, she saw Beti snatch something from the ground.
Then, she saw numerous green balls scattered in a tree bed nearby. Some were also outside the bed and some were on the street, she told WSR. “The balls were the size of marbles,” she said.
Erika then saw a Department of Health sign on the tree, saying that rat poison had been placed in the area, and “may have been injected deep down into rodent tunnels.”
Rat poison is extremely toxic to dogs and children, and if ingested requires immediate medical attention or the poison can cause internal bleeding and death.
Luckily, Erika recalled reading previous Rag articles with photos of the poison. While, this time, the poison was “in the form of round balls” rather than bricks, the bright green color alerted Erika, as did the DOH signs. She rushed Beti to BluePearl Veterinary Partners, where, within the hour, vomiting was induced.
Back in April 2022, we reported that a dog named Waffles ate exposed green bricks of poison in Riverside Park near the River Run Playground at 83rd Street. The dog’s owner, suspecting the bricks were poison immediately brought Waffles to the vet where he was successfully treated.
Like Waffles, Beti will be on Vitamin K1 for one month which is considered an antidote to rat poison due to its ability to clot blood. “Vitamin K1 is an important cofactor in activating coagulation factors, which is affected by these rat poisons. It can take up to 30 days for the anticoagulant rodenticide to clear the system so treatments and rechecks typically last through this time period,” explained Dr. Seth Bishop, of Brilliant Vets at 641 Amsterdam Amsterdam Ave (91st Street).
“Rat poisons often contain anticoagulants or neurotoxins which children should not be exposed to, either by ingestion or physical contact,” said Dr. Michael Yaker, a pediatrician, at Westside Pediatrics, on Columbus Avenue and 90th Street. “If you suspect your child has been exposed, call poison control immediately (212-POISONS).”
Once Beti was home and safe, on Friday morning, June 17th, Erika returned to the area and, wearing gloves, picked up the remaining poison she found and disposed of it. She checked the block late Friday afternoon and did not see any poison.
But on Saturday morning, June 18th, at 9:30 AM, she returned only to find numerous new piles of poison in multiple tree beds on the block, the sidewalk, and in the street.
“I am so worried that a child or another dog will ingest this poison. This morning I put on gloves and threw away as many pieces of poison as I safely could, especially the pieces in the street and on the sidewalk, but you can still see some poison pellets in the dirt — I didn’t want to dig in the soil with my hands, since it was a rat nest,” she said. That’s when Erika also placed her own hand-written signs in the area to warn people.
West Side Rag has reached out to the NYC Department of Health, the NYPD, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and the Parks Department. We will update this story when we have more information.
Editors Note:
According to the NYC Department of Health website, rat poison is “used in accordance with State and City law. It is placed in locations where it will not harm the health of the general public, pets, birds, or squirrels.”
Lincoln Neto, manager of Basics Plus Hardware on Broadway at 84th Street, sells rat poison in his store. He told WSR that the poison is meant to be placed in secure bait stations and should never be left out in the open.
Update, Tuesday, 3:05 p.m.: The NYC Department of Health responded to WSR stating, “These images are not of Health Department products.”
We will continue to investigate.
Rats must be a real problem on that Street. Perhaps you can walk your dog on another Street instead of throwing away the rat poison.
Not an expert, but I’m pretty sure that randomly dispersing poison where anyone (including kids, as well as dogs) might pick it up is not proper rodent control technique. What dimwit is doing this???
WSR should reach out to city council rep, Manhattan Borough Prez, and state senator and assembly rep. This is insane.
I reached out to BP Levine’s office and his staff seemed uninterested in the rat problem and told me to call 311 because it’s not their job. I was extremely disappointed by the office’s lack of concern.
It seems to me that this bait can and should be placed within sturdy containers in which rodents can enter but into which children and dogs cannot reach.,
I live on west 75th and am a dog owner. Obviously this is an insane amount of rat poison… How is this not a public health hazard? What agency is supposed to regulate this? Who should we alert? This has to stop. Hope WSR gets some info from NYC DOH
how does one dispose of poison?
Why not just put the rat poison down the rat hole, where the rat lives? None of us want the rats on the streets.
Somewhere a city worker is scratching his head wondering why the rat problem on West 75th Street hasn’t been resolved. The second batch of poison that he deposited was even larger than the first and the rats seemed to eat all of it. But the rats are still everywhere. Certainly this third batch will do the trick. He’s going to deposit enough to take down an elephant. Somewhere Erika is opening up a new bag of latex gloves, ready to undo his handiwork yet again.
I would wager that this is the work of a “concerned citizen” considering that more was put out so quickly after it was removed by Erika.
Anybody who knows anything about this type of poison knows that it needs to be placed in one of those big black plastic boxes that can’t be accessed easily by small animals or children.
With Citarella down that block there is probably a considerable rat problem on that block, riding my bike down that street it isn’t unusual to see a squished rat.
The problem under de Blasio and now Adams is that the City does little,if anything, to attack the rat issue which is now overwhelming this town. So they actually take some action and they are totally incompetent about it. There are certainly ways to poison rats w/o causing this kind of danger.
Wait—so this time the City was responsible for doing this? That’s insane. I seen the City place the containers that have poison inside for the rats but never would I have thought the City would just throw uncontained rat poison on the streets and sidewalks,. I know a City worker can never be fired, but the idiots who did this should be.
There’s a healthier way of dealing with this problem. There is a club in Brooklyn called RATS, a club consisting of terriers and their owners who literally go rat hunting. It’s good for the dogs because they engage in an outdoor activity with a pack of dogs after being cooped up all day indoors in tiny apartments. It also helps the city rid itself of pestilence without the use of dangerous chemicals. My pit mix likes to hunt rats but she doesn’t work well with other dogs. But I would encourage terrier owners on the UWS to put a group together. Perhaps reach out to the Brooklyn club (they are on Facebook) for guidance.
Unfortunately the Western end of 80th Street/Columbus-Amsterdam, closer to Amsterdam Ave. has again a lively rat population. Also walking same block on 83rd last night, southern side, across from the Post Office, young rats were sprinting back and forth, ducking under cars. A couple was sitting a few steps away on a stoop. I almost stopped to ask if they were enjoying the rats, or. I held my tongue. It is a real problem. And Amsterdam is chockerblock full of food establishments.
This is ridiculous on W. 75th St. very slightly inconsiderate neighbors, i’m calling 311 immediately I would advise other people on the upper West side to do the same and report this problem to have it cleaned up before a child or pet loses their life and the W. 75th St. neighborhood block should be accountable for it.
90th st between Columbus and CPW is another block with a bad rat infestation. In the past two days I’ve had two rats run across my path in broad daylight. They’ve never been that nervy before.
That block has a rat problem…the city took some action about a month ago, but there were still rats. But nobody should be putting unprotected rat poison out. Maybe the landlord of 255 W75 could help out – they have metal bins on the sidewalk for their trash cans. But that bin has holes in it – the rats go into the bin and have a feast. Plugging those holes would help.
Huge increase in rats due to restaurant street shacks.
Also, now that the Covid “emergency” has passed, many people on the street again and sadly, back to dumping their food garbage – pizza boxes, Sweetgreen etc – on overflowing trash cans…
Looks to me like the rats ate the green bricks and pooped the pellets out.
After eating them, their poop is colored and full of the bait.