Manitoba Minister of Environment and Climate Change Mike Moyes has dismissed an appeal by Animal Justice, the Winnipeg Humane Society, and biological sciences expert Dr. James Hare. The appeal challenged a permit allowing the City of Winnipeg to kill Richardson’s ground squirrels using two lethal agents: Rozol, a slow-acting anticoagulant poison, and RoCon, a suffocating foam.
Devastating Welfare and Ecological Impacts
When ground squirrels and other animals—including songbirds, Canada geese, and rabbits—consume Rozol bait, they suffer a prolonged, painful death. The anticoagulant causes internal bleeding, severe weakness, and difficulty breathing lasting days or even weeks. When the poison kills nursing mothers, their dependent young starve inside underground burrows.
While these measures are intended to control ground squirrel populations, they inflict painful and potentially deadly consequences on countless other animals Rozol causes secondary poisoning when predators and scavengers—including companion dogs and cats, hawks, and foxes—eat poisoned bodies. The poison can easily work its way up the food chain, threatening endangered and vulnerable species.
Dr. James Hare also warned that checking poisoned bait and dead animals only twice a day, as the city has prescribed, is inadequate to protect wildlife and the environment.
Permit to Poison Winnipeg Ground Squirrels Upheld
The appeal presented numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies highlighting severe animal welfare and environmental risks. Despite this evidence, Minister Moyes dismissed the challenge. The dismissal relied heavily on the fact that these pesticides are federally registered for use in Canada.
However, federal registration doesn’t make a pesticide safe, necessary, or appropriate in all circumstances. Provincial leaders are responsible for ensuring pesticides are used safely and ethically within their jurisdiction. Animal Justice is concerned that the Minister’s decision is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Health Canada’s role in regulating pesticide use in Canada.
Shockingly, just last year, Minister Moyes denied a permit allowing the city to use a sulfur gas bomb known as “Giant Destroyer” to kill ground squirrels, following months of advocacy from Animal Justice and other experts, advocates, and groups. It was a compassionate, science-led decision in response to a chemical that posed a much lower risk to other animals than Rozol or RoCon, making his most recent decision even more concerning.
What Next for Winnipeg’s Ground Squirrels?
The permit remains valid for one year. As a condition of the permit, the City of Winnipeg must create an Environmental Advisory Committee to look at pest management options for the future. The Winnipeg Humane Society plans to seek a seat on the committee to advocate for non-lethal, humane alternatives.
The City can, and must, shift toward proven, non-lethal management strategies instead.
Take Action
City officials need to hear directly from Winnipeggers that the city should ditch these poisons in favour of humane and effective wildlife management and coexistence.
No animal should endure days of agonizing internal bleeding or suffocation, and no residents should worry about toxic baits or contaminated dead animals harming their pets.
Reach out to your city councillor today and tell them you want a safe, humane alternative to these poisons.
Banner image: Nataliia Kotovych | Pexels
