GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Neighbors in the Mather Heights are of Green Bay have recently noticed items on sidewalks that appear to be rat poison, and some have had to pry the items out of their pets' mouths.
- Posts on social media and people who spoke with NBC 26 on Thursday indicate the issue has been going on since early December 2024
- City of Green Bay compliance inspector Tom Nier has been on the case for a few weeks
- Inspections supervisor Bill Paape estimates that rat sightings and complaints continued to rise in 2024 after a five-year high in 2023, but warns residents to be careful when using poisons
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details added for web)
Many folks walking their dogs are only concerned about picking up after them, but some here in the Mather Heights neighborhood are now worried about picking up before their dogs. We're in Green Bay, looking into how poisonous pellets have been strewn around these sidewalks.
"There's a lot of people around the area here that walk dogs every day," Chad Shaw said.
Shaw takes his dog Missy out for a walk every day. Missy is curious, and in the past six weeks, she's been sniffing something strange.
"We'll be finding [pellets] like this, actually on the sidewalks themselves, right in the middle of the sidewalks," Shaw said. "I think people are just throwing them around the yards, or around their houses, and then other animals might be dragging them out. Or, I hate to say it, but this might be intentional."
Shaw thinks the pellets are Tomcat rat poison chunks.
"We're pretty sure [MIssy] had a little piece and got sick," Shaw said. "My neighbor, we're pretty sure her dog got sick."
He and his neighbor Deb Szablewski — who owns two dogs — made a map showing the more than 20 places they've found pellets on sidewalks and yards, and brought it to the city.
Green Bay's inspections supervisor, Bill Paape, says he believes rat complaint numbers were up in 2024, but the official count has yet to be tabulated.
"In 2023 [there were] 129 complaints," Paape said. "2022 was 78, 2021 was 48. The height of them was back in 2017-2018 — we had about 208 complaints in 2017, and 2018 we had 277. We're not quite approaching those numbers. If I were to speculate, I believe our 2024 numbers are probably somewhere in between 2017-2018 and 2023."
Paape warned people about taking pest control into their own hands.
"[You've] got to be very cautious about putting [out] poisons," he said. "I can't say it enough. Contact a professional if you need help. "
Shaw and his neighbors don't want any curious pets or children — Elmore Elementary School is nearby — to be harmed.
"Everybody around here's got loving pets that they care about," Shaw said. "And they don't want to see anything happen to them."
"It would be definitely something that I would be keeping an eye out for as I'm walking the dogs," Matthew Zastrow said, "because you definitely don't want a pet to ingest that."
Zastrow said when he's dealt with rodents in the past, he's opted for a bait box. Shaw believes that's the better idea.
"If you're using this stuff, just use it responsibly: put it in a bait box, or don't use it at all," Shaw said.
The city inspection supervisor says they're actively trying to find the person responsible for putting the pellets on the sidewalk, to educate them about the dangers, and put a stop to it.
