Laura Kiesel has been working for the betterment of the environment and animal welfare for over 30 years, starting in high school. Right out of college she began an internship on Capitol Hill doing environmental advocacy work for the National Wildlife Foundation. Locally, she has been sharing information professionally as a journalist and speaking out personally as a resident of Arlington. Laura has brought many issues before the town, making her familiar with the town warrant and town meeting processes. Her activism includes passing a plastic bag ban, disability access ordinances, and banning pet shops and the retail sale of fur within town limits. Specifically, her behind the scenes advocacy in banning the use of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) on town property paved the way for many cities and towns to do the same. Read below about her experiences and recommendations for those wanting to make change in their community.
How did you become so passionate about the rodenticide issue?
In 2015, I was exiting my apartment complex and saw a pest control professional putting out over 20 bait boxes around the property. I have a background in wildlife biology and know what these poisons can do to wildlife, pets, and kids. I got the pest control information off the bait box and confirmed an SGAR was inside. I tried to get my property manager to at least reduce number of boxes after explaining the harm they cause and watching children play with them. They agreed, but I knew the issue didn’t stop there. I went to our Board of Health and found out that they were actually encouraging use of poison, so I began advocating with them to change this.
How did you start publicly advocating against SGARs?
I started attending a lot of “Friends of…” park and nature groups to get the word out about these poisons. I also started holding panels in town to educate the public on the problems associated with SGARs. In 2018, I filed a bill with the state legislature to form an independent commission to study the effects of rodenticides. I also started covering the issue for DIGBoston newspaper and writing articles for other publications. In 2021, we brought the issue before the Arlington Select Board, asking that construction companies use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies before poison, but the ordinance failed.
When do you feel like you started gaining momentum with your advocacy?
After our first ordinance failed, Arlington had a few high profile wildlife deaths that really upset the community. There was so much public outcry that the media picked it up and people starting giving the issue more attention. In 2022, I started the Save Arlington Wildlife (SAW) website and that really helped. Organizing under something like a name or moniker really made a difference in terms of influence we had on the issue. This led Carey Thiel (of Grey2K USA) and Town Meeting Member Elaine Crowder to bring an article before the Select Board that would ban the use of SGARs, which was more aggressive than the one that failed the year prior. Though not a direct co-sponsor, I diligently worked as a citizen and through SAW to get folks to call the Select Board and their Town Meeting Members, lined up experts to testify for hearings, gathered data, and recruited organizational and town committee/commission endorsements for the ordinance. This ordinance passed at Town Meeting, making Arlington the first municipality to formally ban SGARs on its public land. We also submitted a home rule petition to the state legislature to ban the use of SGARs on private land. That is still pending, as you need the State’s approval to ban these products on private property.
What has been the aftermath of the warrant passing?
In 2023, MK became the second eagle to die from SGARs in Arlington. This proved to us that we need the State’s buy in to be able to regulate SGARs on private property, as the town was doing everything they could. We started pushing people to do their own wildlife groups in their cities or towns. The City of Newton reached out about doing their own ordinance on this issue and almost immediately passed two of them – one to ban SGARs on public property, and a home rule petition to send to the State House to ban SGARs on private property. Others have since done similar measures. I think the more the legislature sees these home rule petitions, they may independently review their policies or pass some sort of legislation.
What made you want to take on banning the use of new fur products in Arlington?
After the rodenticides success in Arlington, I reached out to Liza Oliver who is an animal advocate and runs Fur-Free Massachusetts. I wanted to just forge a relationship about animal welfare, and wanted to see if she would be interested on working on rodenticides in Cambridge, where she lives. I also asked her about a fur ban in Arlington, as I thought the town would be all for it, which they were!
Was it the same for the pet shop warrant?
When I was looking up municipalities with fur bans, I saw that some towns passed a pet shop ordinance at the same time, and thought we could do the same. I wasn’t as confident that Arlington would go for this, but in the end I decided to be more aggressive when it came to what animals we included in the ban. We went with mammals, reptiles, birds, and amphibians because we have a Petco in town. They don’t currently sell pets, but we wanted to make sure they never could in the future. Funny enough, the Select Board members are the ones who asked about fish so we added them before it went on the warrant. It passed, and I believe we are the first municipality to include fish. Our law doesn’t include arachnids – a mistake on our part – but we plan to fix in the future.
What was most helpful in convincing Select Board and Town Meeting Members to vote for the pet shop ordinance with so many species?
I found that using the environmental argument resonated with a lot of people who couldn’t connect with the humaneness argument. Some owners release these animals into the environment when they are no longer wanted. This can hurt native wildlife and puts a huge strain on species specific rescues. I was able to get wild bird and reptile specific rescues to submit letters in support of the ordinance, and share some depressing stats about rate or return and the mortality rates of these animals. The fact that you can go down to the Mystic River and see logs full of red-eared sliders and other invasive animals shows that the issue is in our backyards.
I also was able to talk about the existence of pet mills for the more exotic pets. A lot of people (myself included) did not know of their existence and that some have multiple species breeding next to each other, which could spread disease. I think this really spoke to residents in a post-pandemic world.
What were some of the challenges you faced?
With rodenticides, the pest control industry has really started to pay attention. We had a member of New England Pest Management Association try to tank the warrant at the Select Board meeting. He had even presented himself as an ally on the Poison Free Arlington Facebook page. Luckily people were so upset about the raptor deaths, and I had rat PhD expert at the zoom hearing, so we were able to rebuke his claims. It is important to keep an eye out for bad actors.
With the pet shop ordinance, we had last minute resistance from a Town Meeting Member who introduced an amendment that would strip all species except mammals from the ordinance. We were able to combat their claims by emailing Town Meeting Members data and the rescue letters of support. These elected residents represent their constituents, so we asked folks to email their Town Meeting Members in opposition to the amendment, and it ended up failing.
What are some of your biggest tips and takeaways you would give to someone looking to pass an animal ordinance in their municipality?
- Sometimes keeping things under the radar prevents opposition from sprouting up.
- Have experts at the ready to strengthen your argument and rebuke false claims.
- You will be surprised by people – those you think are on your side and those who are easily swayed.
- Even a few constituents can make a difference.
