A woman who rescued foxes near a Leominster mall says that rat poison is to blame.
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Wildlife advocates are sounding the alarm once again about rodenticide, poison used to control rat populations, after sick foxes were found at a mall in Leominster, Massachusetts.
Members of the community alerted a local animal rehabilitator back in September about the animals at and around the Whitney Field Mall. Two foxes reportedly died from secondary rodenticide poisoning, while one fox, named Adam, has been recovering at the Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford.
"Most of the foxes that we receive have significant delays in blood clotting," founder Jane Newhouse said.
Adam was in rough shape when he was brought in, with an injured foot and signs of mange and poisoning, Newhouse said.
"A lot of foxes that come in here with delayed clotting, once we start treating them with vitamin K, they start clotting normally, which is exactly what happened with him," she said.
Adam the fox will spend one more week in the care of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue before he's released back into the wild.
Stephanie Salvatore, founder of Salvatore Wildlife Rescue, saved Adam after spotting him on the mall property in September.
"It took about an hour of sort of our sweat and equity to try to get him contained," she said.
Salvatore was tipped off by animal advocates that sick foxes were roaming around the mall. She said one was hit by a car and another died shortly after being rescued — "within five minutes of getting to my facility."
She said the culprit is secondary rodenticide poisoning, wildlife feeding on rodents that have eaten poisoned bait from black boxes often left outside of businesses.
"They go after those sick rodents because they're an easy meal," New England Wildlife Center Medical Director Priya Patel said.
More on secondary rat poisoning in Massachusetts
To anti-rat poison advocate Jodi Sylvester, "this is a war."
She has spent years advocating against second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). Wildlife poisoning from these products has been an ongoing issue that can be easily remedied, Sylvester said.
She's been educating people and businesses about the unintended effects of SGAR baits.
"The easiest and fastest way is to switch over to snap traps," she said.
"There are alternatives that are available that are non-poison based and they're easy to come by as long as you ask your pest control company about them," added Salvatore.
Hull Properties, owners of the Whitney Field Mall, have not responded to NBC10 Boston's request for comment and if they have considered replacing the bait boxes.
