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! more ›

A letter laced with rat poison was sent to a St. John's University law student yesterday. A St. John's spokesperson told the AP a "suspicious-looking" letter was received at the Queens campus on Monday: "The university was closed for Easter break, but some workers were there and accepted the envelope." Apparently NYPD "determined the substance was rat poison and didn't pose any direct danger to the workers." The investigation is ongoing. more ›

A novelist and her husband are suing a Manhattan hotel for negligence after their cats almost died at the hotel. Marisha Pessl and Nicola Caiano claim that the cleaning staff at the AKA Sutton Place hotel, which says it's "pet-friendly," left out some rat poison--which was eaten by their three cats. more ›