North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 05:58 PM 4/5/2005, you wrote:
> Lucky,
>  
> Thanks for the warning!  
>  
> We have scattered the Rampage packets into areas where only rats or mice
> would be likely to find them.  The rats have to gnaw open the
> package themselves and eat – in spite of the clearly worded warning that
> it would kill them… our cats showed no interest in the fallen rats, and
> dogs didn’t have access to the bait, so we never faced the problem of
> pets becoming contaminated.  Although the product was advertised as
> ‘safe’ for non-rodents, it doesn’t surprise me that direct consumption by
> small mammals (puppies) could lead to problems.

Steve,
I've not researched it, or spoken with our toxicologist, but I suspect the 'safety' is as you initially described it - secondary consumers(animals consuming the initially poisoned rats/mice) are relatively safe from toxicosis - which is definitely not the case with most of the potentiated anticoagulant baits(brodifacoum, diphacinone,etc.).
I wouldn't consider the Vitamin D analogs to be 'safe' for any non-rodent, if consumed directly.  While the cases of Rampage/Quintox poisoning I've seen in dogs were mainly in puppies, they weren't necessarily 'small' - one was a 50-60 lb Lab.  And I've also seen reports of the same sort of tissue mineralization(stomach, kidney, lung) and death in adult swine, when their ration was mis-formulated, with substitution of Vitamin D concentrate in place of dicalcium phosphate.

Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY