Flaco the owl died with rat poison in his system. Is birth control better than rodenticide?

A New York City lawmaker wants to avenge avian icon Flaco, who died with a dangerous amount of rodenticide in his system, by sterilizing rats.

Councilmember Shaun Abreu introduced a bill on Thursday to test out a program to distribute contraceptive rat pellets in his Upper Manhattan district. A necropsy determined that Flaco, the Central Park-based Eurasian eagle owl, had ingested rodents with high levels of deadly rat poison before he fatally collided with a building on the Upper West Side in February.

Abreu said the city’s efforts to poison rats have proved ineffective and are harmful to the raptors, or birds of prey, that feed on the critters.

“We are taking a shock-and-awe approach,” he told Gothamist. “The next frontier of addressing the rat population, I strongly believe, has to be birth control.”

The bill is part of a larger legislative package dubbed “Flaco’s Laws,” which includes legislation to reduce fatal bird collisions by installing new lighting and windows.

Abreu called the city’s rat population “explosive” and pointed to research that suggests two rats can produce more than 15,000 descendants in a year. His office has been working with Loretta Mayer, a scientist who invented the contraceptive “Contrapest.”

A previous attempt to exterminate rats in Bryant Park with liquid Contrapest failed, Gothamist reported in September. Abreu said the coverage had informed his legislation, and that the liquid method is not as effective as a pellet contraceptive.

He said Bryant Park had used the contraceptives for only six weeks, which was too short. The councilmember also added that contraceptives must be paired with efforts to minimize other food options for birds by putting trash in containers.

Mayer said contraceptives are the best tool in the war on rats. Mayor Eric Adams has made killing the vermin a key goal of his administration's policy platform.

“After 20 years of study and trials our team has demonstrated in pilot studies that fertility control can reduce rodent numbers and stop rebounds by blocking the birth rate,” Mayer said in a statement.

A contract for the contraceptive pellets will go through the normal bidding process, Abreu said. The pellet contraceptive contains fat and salt, and rats are likely to carry the pellets back to their burrow and share them with their fellow rats, he noted.

Rodenticide, or rat poison, is the most common form of rat mitigation. But research shows the toxic chemical is extremely harmful to the environment as well as animals that ingest it.

Bird advocates at NYC Audubon and the Lights Out Coalition rallied with Abreu on Thursday afternoon, holding portraits of Flaco and signs saying “Pass Flaco’s Law” and “Save Birds.”

“There are really easy solutions to protecting birds," said Jessica Wilson, executive director of NYC Audubon. "Those include safer, better alternatives to rodenticide.”