Ten Arrested In Chinatown Illegal Rat Poison Sting

via New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

6,000 packages of an extremely lethal chemical being sold in Manhattan's Chinatown as rat poison have been seized, and ten retailers have been arrested on state and federal charges. Authorities from the EPA, the city's DA's office, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation confiscated vials and boxes of brodifacoum, an anticoagulant 61 times stronger than is legal, with the label "The Cat Be Unemployed." A woman who purchased them in the East Broadway Mall last year mistook it for medicine, and lost two-thirds of her blood volume!

“A lot of these products are carcinogenic, they’re neurotoxic and they have the potential to do long-term damage,” an EPA spokesman told the Times. Children are of special concern because the products are meant to smell and taste good, and are baited on the floor where they are within easy reach. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports that 12,000 to 15,000 children under the age of 6 are exposed to the chemicals each year. "Some of the other products are so toxic that one small vial can kill an adult male," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said.

Two men arrested face jail time, while the others face fines of up to $5,000, and the shame of putting many decent, hardworking bodega cats out of work.

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By Christopher Robbins in News on September 20, 2011 9:00 AM

Comments [rss]

rnrnys

Maybe we should just leave the city to the vermin and the bicylists from the other posts. Let them fight it out.

PicoPhreako69

Got Flammenwerfer?

soothsayer

everybody living near Tompkins Square park just rushed into Chinatown to buy up what's left before it's all banned.

rnrnys

So it seems you only allowed to kill rats slowly?

We are being overrun and you can't use heavy duty pesticides to kill roaches, ants, mice, bedbugs, etc? WTF!

I'm getting itchy just thinking about living here any longer.

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

This is why we can't have nice stuff.

Daniel

Who would buy this as medicine without even knowing what condition they would be taking it for, even if it wasn't poison? Does this woman just swallow anything?

rnrnys

Who swallows????????

Daniel

Polite people?

whatidsay

She mistook it for medicine when she took it, not when she bought it.

redo_undo

I live near Chinatown and we used to buy one of the poisons in question. That stuff was amazing One little box for $1.50 could kill tons of roaches and they wouldn't come back. This is a shame. What kind of idiot buys medicine in a variety store?

pendejito

Go check yourself for cancerous tumors.

whatidsay

The kind that mistakes it for rat poison.

shineoftheever

How in the world does someone mistake that as medicine??

theoddfather

After living in Chinatown, I can understand why they'd need super-poison. The rats are huge!

whatidsay

And if the cat eats the stuff, it will be unalive.

soothsayer

The Cat be Dead.

schmeep

Uh oh, now I'm concerned about that can of "This Honky Grandmother Be Trippin' " nutritional supplement I bought on Baxter. I'd better call my abuela.