Features

Animal lovers try to halt poison drop 

SANTA BARBARA — Animal protectionists asked for emergency federal action to halt the second phase of a poison drop designed to kill off the destructive black rats on Anacapa Island. 

Tuesday’s request seeks protections for the native deer mice that will also die in the eradication program. The Fund for Animals and the Channel Islands Animal Protection Association demanded that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service list the Anacapa deer mouse for protection under the Endangered Species Act. 

Fund for Animals spokesman Michael Makarian said the rat eradication plan would be an ecological disaster for the island. The mice inhabit only the three Anacapa islets.