What’s the best way to honor the legacy of P-22, the Hollywood Cat who crossed two freeways and survived another 10 years as the wildest resident of Griffith Park?
By trying to prevent the deaths of his fellow Southern California mountain lions.
That’s the impetus behind an action taken on Tuesday, Feb. 28 by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that includes support for additional wildlife crossings, bans on pesticides that are killing the cougars, and the minting of a U.S. postage stamp that will literally spread his story across the country.
It was P-22’s amazing story that helped Angelenos and others raise money for the under-construction Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing arching over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills. Once built, it will help the wild cougars safely connect with both sides of the Santa Monica Mountains and beyond. If they can’t roam, the animals can’t find food — or find a mate from the larger gene pool across the region, which prevents inbreeding.
But the one thing the $90 million project won’t do is prevent these wild cats from getting sick and dying from rat poison exposure.
That’s right. Rat poisons placed outside homes, commercial and public buildings are moving up the food chain, starting with rodents who eat the poison, as well as raccoons and possums. When hungry mountain lions eat these animals, the rat poisons enter their organs, suppressing their immunity to ordinary conditions like mange, which can suddenly become fatal.
In the motion, the Board of Supervisors is asking the state to ban what are known as first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides or FGARs, developed before 1970. A state bill, AB1788, which became law in 2020, banned the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide (SGARs), but FGARs are not prohibited.
“A ban on FGARs would address one of the other major factors driving the region’s mountain lions towards extinction,” the motion stated.
P-22 died of numerous factors, mostly from internal injuries from being struck by a car. But in 2014, tests of P-22’s blood showed that he had been exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides. Tests showed P-22’s blood contained diphacinone and chlorophacinone, two first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (FGARs).
The result was a bad case of mange, a common skin disease made worse by a suppressed immune system from poisons that accumulate in the liver or blood of larger mammals. Since he wore a radio collar, P-22 was located and treated for mange by U.S. National Park Service scientists and veterinarians.
Beth Pratt, the National Wildlife Federation’s California regional executive director who emceed the P-22 Celebration of Life at the Greek Theater on Feb. 4, said in an interview on Tuesday that toxicology tests are not yet back from P-22, who died in December.
But she believes he had rodenticides in his blood or organs.
“He almost died once from it,” she said. “I was always more worried about him getting exposed to rat poison than getting hit by a car,” she said.
The board is also directing county departments to stop using FGARs on all county-owned and managed properties and to phase out their usage throughout the unincorporated county regions. Residents can still buy this class of rat poison but the county can educate the community about their unintended consequences.
Pratt, who lives near Yosemite National Park, said she doesn’t use rodenticides and never has a problem with rats or rodents. Having pet cats act as deterrents, she said. She also suggested use of rodent traps, or traps that use electric shocks instead of pesticides.
Homeowners should not put food sources outside. Also, they can fill cracks in the attics or in foundational crawl spaces with steel wool to keep out rodents. Other non-toxic methods include using pressurized water blasts to clear out rodent tunnels, said Pratt.
“Even if you don’t love mountain lions, your pets can get exposed to them (rodenticides in poison bait traps),” Pratt said.
Malibu has banned rat poison. The group Poison Free Malibu has worked to educate the public and other cities about the connection to wildlife deaths and poison bait boxes.
The supervisors will send a letter to the U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and also to the USPS Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to support a request to produce a P-22 postage stamp. The effort began with support from representatives Adam Schiff, Ted Lieu and Julia Brownley.
“I applaud the supervisors,” Pratt said. “The world is watching. In L.A., we have a co-existence effort that is so strong.”