Marlborough is the latest community to ban the use of rat poison on city property, a move championed by a local wildlife rehabilitator.
Alyssa Giaquinto, of Marlborough-based Giaquinto Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, said the City Council’s vote on Monday, May 19, to ban the use of poison was an important step to protect wildlife.
“This is something we’ve been working on for a year,” she told the Daily News. “I’ve been a wildlife rehabilitator for six years. For years, we’ve got calls for sick and injured animals who were unknowingly eating these poisoned rodents and then dying themselves.”
Alyssa Giaquinto, of Giaquinto Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, with educational ambassador Bella, a 1-year-old barn owl, May 21, 2025. She is pushing to have the use of rat poison banned statewide
How the poison works is that once a rodent — such as a mouse or rat — eats it, they survive for several days. But in the meantime, if a predator — a bird of prey, fox or even a cat — eats the rodent, the predator is also poisoned. And if the predator feeds the rodents to its babies, the poison from one rat can potentially kill several animals.
‘Like a nuclear weapon’: Animal rehabilitator warns of dangers of using rat poison
“It’s decimating our wildlife at such a fast rate, something needs to be done to stop it,” Giaquinto said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Last year, due to a rise in Marlborough’s rat population, the city contracted with a pest removal company to use traps to catch rats without using poison.
Giaquinto worked with Councilor Preciado to create ordinance
Giaquinto said she worked with Ward 3 City Councilor Robert Preciado to develop the ordinance. During Monday’s council meeting, Preciado told his colleagues that passage of the ordinance was important to community wildlife.
“This ordinance will likely save many, many raptors, many, may…. wildlife essentially, from getting poisoned,” he said during the meeting.
This 1-year-old barn owl, named “Bella,” is educational ambassador for the Giaquinto Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Marlborough, May 21, 2025.
Marlborough is just the latest Massachusetts community that has banned rat poison. At least 33 others have them, either through their local governing boards or home rule petitions, including Arlington, Belmont, Boxborough, Cambridge, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Newton and Weston.
‘Rodent sighting tool’: Marlborough contracts with Woburn pest control company to attack rat population
Several other communities are considering bans, Giaquinto said.
She said the effort is not over. The next step in Marlborough is to file a home-rule petition with the Legislature to ban the use of rat poison citywide, not just on city-owned property.
What’s next for Giaquinto
On Tuesday, May 27, Giaquinto will meet with the Hudson Board of Health to discuss a possible ban and home-rule petition there.
She hopes to continue fighting until the use of rat poison is banned statewide.
“The main reason I do this is for my 3-year-old daughter, Nova,” Giaquinto said. “She loves owls and all wildlife. I’m worried in her lifetime she will witness the extinction of various species of native wildlife that we take for granted today. I want her to grow up in a natural world with a healthy ecosystem. That is the main reason I advocate for wildlife conservation.”
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date public safety news, follow him on X @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Marlborough is latest to ban use of rat poison on city property
