Introduction

Cathy
The day Emily died we realized that the City of Safety Harbor was
using anticoagulant rodenticides on all city properties – suddenly
we could see there were black boxes of rat poison everywhere

In less than 24 hours…

• A handful of concerned citizens met each other under the Owl
Tree—it was Fateful
• (Mark & Linda, Terrie & Fairl, Fred, Cathy & Dan and we became
“The Owl Team”)
• That night we started a Facebook group called Safety Harbor
Strong Owls – 500 people joined the group within 3 days (now
at 1,800 members)
Safety Harbor
• The City of Safety Harbor mailed our brochures to every resident of the City as utility bill
insert; the bill insert was mailed to approximately 7,000 households;
• The Mayor put his name on an article on the risks of poisoning wildlife and pets and
asked everyone to stop using anticoagulant rodenticides;
• The issue was the cover of the quarterly Safety Harbor Magazine;
• The Mayor additionally posted the article on his social media, which generated over
2,500 “Likes”, and over 250 “shares”, indicating the broad appeal and political support of
the issue (Mayor told me he was astounded, no other issue every got him as much social
media attention);
• The Team developed a print-at-home flyer that could be posted at businesses for
employees to see; we used it for door-to-door canvassing to businesses—a key
constituency to eliminating the anticoagulant-based rodenticides in town.
Flyer is from
Raptors Are
The
Solution.org
Media Coverage
Our Strategy

• We Took a Practical Approach - we made the strategic decision to include rat poison options that
were “safer” rodenticides; having a chemist within the Team (Mark) gave us expertise, legitimacy, and
the confidence to recommend different rodent poisons and it gave us the support of the business
community, which was critical to success.
• We made the “strategic compromise” to recommend other rat poisons because we realized that
businesses and property owners would not take us seriously without a viable alternative to
anticoagulant rodenticides; this approach is different than most Audubon and Sierra Club
recommendations.
• Note—No rat poison is safe! The “safer” choices we recommend will still kill a pet or a child if
ingested. We approach our chemical recommendations as a “last-resort” and urge everyone to
handle the chemicals as toxic; be very, very careful.
We collaborated with the Chamber of Commerce to get the word out to businesses; a group
from our Facebook page conducted a door-to-door campaign and over 350 flyers were
handed-out in one day.
This is the Pest Control Team who are contacting pest control companies directly to ask them to stop using the
anticoagulant chemicals. We are also planning an “Owl Booth” at the Sunday Market and “Third Fridays”
street festival. This effort has shown us that with advocacy, education, many companies willingly agree to stop
using them.
Certificate of Recognition

• In collaboration with a nonprofit wildlife rescue organization, Birds in Helping Hands, the Team
developed the idea of providing a public Certificate of Recognition and we highlight the companies on
our Facebook page as “owl-friendly” heros
• Given to businesses that agreed to stop using anticoagulant rodenticides
• A team is contacting pesticide companies and asking them not to use warafin-based rodenticides. If
they confirm and prove that they are using only “safe” products, we present them with this certificate
and give them lots of publicity
• This has been a very successful strategy but also sometimes hard to confirm that the pest control
companies are actually using the “safer” products
Next Steps for Outreach

• Speaker Circuit – outreach to civic organizations, church groups, homeowners’ associations,

membership organizations, trade associations (such as pest control associations, municipal
conferences, property managers, and realtors);
• Outreach to other cities including St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Dunedin City Councils, through local
groups such Sierra Clubs and Audubon chapters;
• The City of Safety Harbor continues to be our good partner and recently dedicated a page to
Protecting Wildlife (go to cityofsafetyharbor.com/Owls) were all of the educational materials can be
found for downloading and printing at home;
• Our own website where our materials can be publicly-found and shared (with inspiration from
RaptorsAreTheSolution.org, which we have relied upon for information and materials throughout this
process.)
• Introduce Fairl