MANCHESTER – Should a resident be allowed to put poison out on their lawn?
During a recent Township Council meeting, Gail O’Connor, a resident of the senior community Leisure Village West, brought up concerns about a resident who put a lethal chemical on his Canterbury Drive lawn on Christmas.
“A gentleman decided to put rat poison on his lawn because he didn’t want the dogs on his lawn and one of the residents walking by with their dog – and we have rules about where we walk our dogs, we don’t put them on people’s lawns – she realized what it was and it was rat poison.”
O’Connor added, “Our association called the police and the county. They checked it out and it was rat poison. I think the health department is getting involved. The police came and said that rat poison is a legal substance and so they couldn’t do anything.”
“I’m sure that is the case. We have a great police department but I feel something should be done to put the law on the books. Beyond the dogs, what about our little grandkids who might have run on the guy’s lawn? Just because it is a legal substance doesn’t mean something shouldn’t be done,” she added.
Rat poison is not only hazardous to rodents, cats and dogs, but small animals that may eat it like a mouse who then gets eaten by owls or other birds of prey.
O’Connor told the mayor and council that LVW maintenance was called in and it had to be cleared out. “They were out breaking their back all afternoon cleaning up rat poison and the police were there spending their time. I’d like to see what you can do about putting a law on the books.”
“We do have a lot of dogs but this gentleman is only covering the price of maintenance. Nothing else is going to happen to this guy who wants to poison animals. I think the police should be able to do something. I really hope you guys can come up with something that will help protect our residents,” she said, asking the governing body if they could speak to the LVW homeowners’ association about this problem. “Help us do something about this guy. We can’t kick him out or anything.”
Council President Roxy Conniff said that there would be discussion concerning this issue.
