On July 25, a sickly coyote pup was found on Brandeis campus. It later tested positive for a potent rodenticide known as Second-Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides  which has been used by Brandeis to minimize the rat population. SGARs are poisons that prevent blood clotting and lead to internal bleeding and ultimately death. These poisons take about a week to kill  rats but live in their system for over four weeks and can be transferred to any animal that consumes the rodent. This poison “causes a very painful death for the wildlife,” said Brandeis Students for Environmental Action, a local and regional environmental activist group, president Justin Kiozumi ’27 in an interview with The Justice on Sept. 8. SGARs poisoning has resulted in deaths of several species of predators that are eating the rats, such as owls, coyotes and most commonly red-tailed hawks. 

Save Waltham Wildlife, a sub group of the Waltham Land Trust, had been contacting Brandeis officials about the effects of SGARs on wildlife since the spring of 2024, according to Waltham Land Trust director Sonja Wadman in an interview with The Justice on Sept. 8. On May 1, Wadman and Justin Kiozumi met with Chris Gould, Manager of Grounds and Fleet Services, and Lois Stanley, Vice President for campus operations. This meeting resulted in Brandeis vowing to phase out SGARs over a two week period starting July 2.

Brandeis kept their promise and replaced SGARs with a form of vitamin D known as Cholecalciferol, but this alternative is not without its issues. This poison causes kidney failure in the rodents and death in a few weeks to a month. While vitamin D3 does not harm raptors, it is toxic to canines such as coyotes and dogs, although a high dosage would need to be consumed for it to be deadly. Wadman listed several alternatives to poisoning, such as electric traps, rat sterilizers, carbon dioxide fuming and “good old fashion snap traps.” 

Along with a switch to more environmentally continuous rat prevention, Wadman and Kiozumi’s meeting with Brandeis officials resulted in a discussion of the root of the abundant rat populations. Kiozumi explained,  “These rat populations are increasing because students are not throwing out their trash” in residence halls such as East Quadrangle, accumulating to a larger rat population in and around buildings. The May 1 meeting proposed a “kind of ultimatum,” said Kiozumi. Brandeis will stop using SGARs, while Brandeis Students for Environmental Action in partnership with Save Waltham Wildlife plan to educate students on how to properly dispose of trash and what are the consequences if they do not. This education aims at freshmen and sophomores in particular as their dorm area often has the most trash issues, says Kiozumi. Responsibly caring for trash means ensuring it is kept in a sealed dumpster or trash can, not beside or left open.

Kiozumi and Wadman have begun this initiative by asking Brandeis students to sign a pledge to dispose of their trash responsibly as a “symbolic gesture” at a Helping Hands event on Aug 27. They have plans to laminate posters and place them on dumpsters throughout campus which educate students on the importance of trash upkeep and the booming rat population that would be worsened by irresponsible behavior. 

Rats are not a Brandeis-specific issue, says Wadman. Waltham is struggling with the infestation and Waltham Land Trust is encouraging residents to ensure they are completely sealing bins, picking up for themselves, reporting any unsecured waste bins to the county and overall being responsible with their waste. 

Kiozumi feared the implication of an out-of-control rat population would force the school to once again resort to wildlife-killing poisons. “Students need to take action,” he said.