Pest and weed control

Dear Editor:I think it is time that the citizens of Downey start acting more responsibly when it comes to the use of poisons, whether it is for rodents, insects or unwanted weeds. Our cat of 25 years was poisoned either accidentally (I would hope) or on purpose and died last Thursday. I understand the need to control the rodent population, but there are many methods that can be used to accomplish this goal without the use of poison. Even if you confine poison to an area where only rodents can get to it, once they have ingested these poisons, any animal that ingests them now has the same concentration of poison in their system. there are electric traps, sticky traps and the old-fashioned snap traps. Better yet, if people would just clean up the clutter in their yards and pick the fruit off their trees, the rodent population wouldn't be nearly as large of a problem. When it comes to insects, there are a host of eco-friendly insect killers on the market that are not toxic to pets or humans. In addition to curbing the use of poison for rodent control, how about we stop using weed killer like water? I see it sprayed along the freeways, in parks and people using it around their houses. Not only is this unhealthy for the environment as a whole, it can easily poison animals that happen to walk through it. How about you get off your duff and pull your weeds instead of spraying them? It's not that difficult. Perhaps if more people were a little more proactive and responsible, another pet will not have to go through the same agony that our cat did. Matt Millard Downey

********** Published: Feb. 27, 2014 - Volume 12 - Issue 46