An Open Letter
Chairs of Green Rights Organization of the World
Photo by Penelope Hunt ‘28
On April 18, at Sarah Lawrence College’s annual spring festival, many students bore witness to an unfortunate incident involving the rat traps outside of Rothschild. Several baby bunnies were frightened out of their burrow, and one ran into the poisonous trap. Leaders of Green Rights Organization for the World (GROW) were at the scene, and campus safety was called to assist with removing the bunny. Despite expressing concern and agreeing to help, no officers showed. Eventually, one student had to pry open the locked trap with their keys to help the bunny escape. Students were rightfully upset with the necessity of touching the bunny to remove it from the trap, risking harming or stressing it in the process. Several students stepped in to help cover the entrances to the four nearby traps with tape so the incident would not be repeated. It was incredibly distressing for those who saw this occur and unimaginably so for the bunny.
The resounding concern following this event is with the presence of poisonous rat traps on campus, particularly outside. The apparent poison found in these traps (EZ Secured with an EZ Block) is a chemical called Bromadiolone, a common anticoagulant rodenticide. The dermal LD50 (lethal dose 50) of this product, for rabbits, is 1.71 mg/kg, meaning contact with .171 mg could be lethal for a newborn bunny that size (around 100g). We can’t say for certain how much contact the bunny had, but at the very least being inside the trap was dermally irritating, and potentially lethal.
One of the most beautiful features of this campus is our cohabitation with the local wildlife. Our unofficial secondary mascot, the black squirrel, was endearingly chosen due to their large population on campus. This land is more theirs than it is ours; it is regrettable to risk harm to any of them. With 52 occupied spaces/buildings on campus and a low estimate of 3 traps per location, we would guess there are over 150 traps on campus. If you are skeptical, take a look outside. The unobtrusive black boxes spaced as little as 10 feet apart in some areas are, in reality, holding poisons harming an unknown number of animals at our school. Does Sarah Lawrence have a history of rat infestations that gives precedence to these devices? If there is any necessity for rat traps on campus, they should be non-kill, harmless traps, placed only indoors. G.R.O.W is firmly requesting campus operations to make this change by the next school year.
