Enacts the restriction of anticoagulant pesticide transactions for online and retail stores act to prohibit any person from selling, offering for sale or use, or distributing within the state, any second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide; prohibits the use of either a first-generation anticoagulant rodenticide or a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide within five hundred feet of a wildlife habitat area.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10012
IN ASSEMBLY
May 1, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BURDICK -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
enacting the restriction of anticoagulant pesticide transactions for
online and retail stores act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "restriction of anticoagulant pesticide transactions for online and
3 retail stores act" or "RAPTORS act".
4 § 2. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds and declares
5 that it is the policy of this state to ensure that aquatic, terrestrial,
6 and avian wildlife species remain a fully functional component of the
7 ecosystems they inhabit and move through in New York. It is the intent
8 of this act to facilitate this goal by prohibiting the general public
9 from purchasing and utilizing the world's deadliest rodenticides, noto-
10 riously deployed via helicopter to "restore the ecosystem" of entire
11 rat-infested islands and often killing scores of raptors and other birds
12 in the process.
13 This legislation also comes in the wake of Flaco's passing. Flaco, the
14 Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and life on
15 the loose captivated New York, had been exposed at the time of his death
16 to four of the seven pesticides this bill restricts. The legislature
17 takes this action to protect all non-target species, not only raptors
18 such as eagles, hawks, and owls, but also the thousands of children and
19 pets exposed to anticoagulants that poison control centers receive calls
20 for each year.
21 § 3. Section 33-1301 of the environmental conservation law is amended
22 by adding a new subdivision 14 to read as follows:
23 14. a. For any person within the state to sell, offer for sale or use,
24 distribute, use, or deploy any pesticide or rodenticide containing a
25 restricted SGAR or FGAR, in any concentration, unless such a purchaser
26 or user has a valid purchase permit or certification identification card
27 pursuant to section 33-0903 of this article.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15056-04-4
A. 10012 2
1 b. For any person, including but not limited to, certified pesticide
2 applicators and government officials, to use a pesticide containing any
3 restricted SGAR or FGAR in, or within five hundred feet of, a wildlife
4 habitat area. The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of
5 agriculture and markets, may promulgate rules and regulations to permit
6 the use of pesticides containing SGARs or FGARs by pesticide applicators
7 certified pursuant to section 33-0905 of this article where such use is
8 not reasonably expected to result in significant adverse effects to
9 non-target wildlife.
10 c. For the purposes of this subdivision the following terms shall have
11 the following meanings:
12 (1) "First-generation anticoagulant rodenticide" or "FGAR" means any
13 pesticide product containing any of the following active ingredients:
14 (i) Diphacinone.
15 (ii) Warfarin.
16 (iii) Chlorophacinone.
17 (2) "Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide" or "SGAR" means any
18 pesticide product containing any of the following active ingredients:
19 (i) Brodifacoum.
20 (ii) Bromadiolone.
21 (iii) Difenacoum.
22 (iv) Difethialone.
23 (3) "Wildlife habitat area" means any park, wetland, wetland buffer,
24 nature reserve or preserve, or wildlife refuge managed by a state agen-
25 cy, regional government, or quasi-government agency, or by a special
26 district.
27 (4) "Significant adverse effect" means a direct or indirect activity
28 that negatively affects the health or viability of a wildlife population
29 or that damages or threatens wildlife habitats.
30 § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
31 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
32 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
33 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
34 on or before such effective date.
