The Victims
Wildlife rehabilitators take in poisoned animals all the time, and most of these animals die. Those who get released are often poisoned again. Pets have also been poisoned.
In this video, Maria Colby, wildlife rehabilitator and owner of Wings of Dawn, documents a Red-tailed Hawk suffering from rodenticide poisoning.
This poisoned Red-tailed Hawk shows visible bleeding in the pupil from hemorrhaging internally. Wildlife rehabilitator Maria Colby was unable to save him.
Another Victim: Red-tailed Hawk Dies from Rodenticide Poisoning in Stratham, NH
A Red-tailed Hawk from Stratham, NH brought to wildlife rehabilitator Maria Colby, was so severely compromised that he had to be euthanized.
The hawk was hemorrhaging internally and showed visible bleeding in the pupil, a telling sign. A hematocrit test confirmed that the hawk's hematocrit level — the measure of red blood cells in the blood — was critically low.
For a Red-tailed Hawk, a normal range is between 30% and 50%. This victim's reading was 10: the blood had lost its ability to clot, and the bird was bleeding to death from the inside.
This is what rodenticide poisoning looks like.
A family of 3-week old fox kits all perished because their mother unknowingly fed them poisoned rodents.
Nora, a boxer puppy, became sick and died after eating a poisoned rodent.
A single owl can eat up to 1,000 rodents a year — yet poisoned prey turns dinner into a death sentence.