No longer will lethal rodent control be allowed in DC homes – that is, unless you can prove that the public safety is in jeopardy. You would also have to develop a strategy to “preserve family units” of pests. If you find bats on your property in winter, you cannot disturb them until they come out of hibernation in the spring. Should there be 10 bats, you’ll need a special permit to be rid of them.
No, I am not joking. This is the new standard being drafted by HSUS in the District.
Unreal. Unsurprising, but unreal.
We should call DC, California East!!
WOW… What they do to me for trapping and swim testing chipmonks who were inhabiting my garage?
Sounds like one bunch of vermin (politicians) protecting another bunch of vermin.
No law will ever stop me from doing whatever it takes to rid my house of rodents.
“Preserve family units”? OK, I’ll just use napalm. :)
When the squirrel laws come, my nephew will rebel.
As has been said in the west about protected animals on your property: “shoot, shovel and shut up.” (Unintended consequences are a bitch; species protection could have been handled much differently.) Have to modify the “shoot” part, of course, but after that I can’t imagine this is going to be easy to enforce.
Except for the real possibility of the madness spreading, I’m actually glad to see this. I’ve been coming around to the Suprynowicz school of thought on land use and environmental regulations. Said regulations have been imposed (at least partially and indirectly) by the larger population of blue cities and seaboards unfamiliar with their effects? Let us enlighten them. Find and file as many nuisance and strike claims for “distinct breeding populations” in liberal strongholds as the enviros do in our back yards. See how they like it.
Council member Mary M. Cheh introduced this bill. She suggests:
“If you can relocate, relocate,” Cheh advised. “Euthanasia should be the last resort.”
If I lived in DC, I’d be happy to relocate my rodents to outside her home.