Marijuana Farm Poisons Killing Furry Little Animals in California (VIDEO)

By Dennis Romero Mon., Jul. 16 2012 at 11:56 AM

DEA

California's demand for high-grade marijuana, whether it comes from dispensaries or the dude down the street, has led to a high-dollar growing industry that some have said is the most valuable cash crop in the state.

A sad side-effect of the industry, however, is that the rare forest carnivore known as the fisher, a candidate to become an officially endangered species, is being killed by the harsh chemicals used by outdoor cannabis growers in California.

Not only that, but martens, spotted owls, and Sierra Nevada red foxes are threatened by the poison too:

This according to a new UC Davis study published in the latest edition of the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

According to a summary:

Researchers discovered commercial rodenticide in dead fishers in Humboldt County near Redwood National Park and in the southern Sierra Nevada in and around Yosemite National Park.

Nearly 8 out of 10 of the dead fishers academics studied were exposed to the chemicals used on pot farms, they said. The poison also puts spotted owls, and Sierra Nevada red foxes at risk, researchers say.

The latest poisons can kill a fisher in one dose, according to the UC Davis findings.

Now, you could try to blame other kinds of non-organic farming, but researchers say they're not to blame:

The fishers, many of which had been radio-tracked throughout their lives, did not wander into urban or agricultural environments. However, their habitat did overlap with illegal marijuana farms.

More than 2,000 plants, along with "large amounts" of rodenticide, had been recently discovered, for example, 7.5 miles from their study area.

Spring, when fishers are rearing their young, is when pot gets planted and the poisons come out, unfortunately.

Lead author Mourad Gabriel of UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, says that when fishers are harmed other animals will be too:

If fishers are at risk, these other species are most likely at risk because they share the same prey and the same habitat.

Smoke on that.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

California, endangered species, farm, grow, humbolt, marijuana, medical marijuana, research, UC Davis

We Recommend

Jose Gonzales

The choice is simple. Exterminate these furry carnivore scum or legalize marijuana.

Malcolm Kyle

Some simple facts: * Prohibition has been a slow but relentless degradation (death by a zillion cuts) of all our cherished national institutions, that will leave us crippled for numerous generations. * The US federal government is now the most dangerous and corrupt corporation on the planet. * In 1989, 'The Kerry Committee' found that the United States Department of State had made payments to drug traffickers. Concluding, that even members of the U.S. State Department, themselves, were involved in drug trafficking. Some of the payments were made even after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies - or even while these traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. * Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem. * A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine. * The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning. * Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. - approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc. * Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so. * Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits. * Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour. * Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement - even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death. * The CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, and moving Cocaine from Central America. This has been well documented. - by the 1989 Kerry Committee, as well as academic researchers such as Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb. * It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets. * The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.

Malcolm Kyle

Charlie, as a supporter of prohibition, you are guilty of killing every single one of those animals! There is NO debate. Marijuana is absolutely safer than alcohol, tobacco, or even most, of our over-the-counter "medicines". Prohibition, on the other hand, is a costly nightmare that only enriches criminals, corrupt politicians, and kills little furry animals. Millions of citizens are already using marijuana, legal or not. What many sane people are proposing is to take the criminal aspect out of it and collect revenues from its sale instead of spending millions of precious tax dollars on doomed-to-failure enforcement.

David

So basicly ,the moral of the story here is to make sure you only grow Organic weed.

Blitz2209

wow this article is quite pathetic. Of course an unregulated market doesn't care for the environment, these people will do anything to make money. LEGALIZE and this kind of stuff won't happen.