Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

The author describes recent trends in development, use, and regulation of vertebrate pesticides, given the current attitudes and philosophies of American society’s opinions regarding environmental awareness, pollution, endangered species protection, and pesticide hazards. He notes the relative absence of development of new vertebrate pest control technologies during the last three decades, in part because of the high cost of pesticide registration, a function of increased regulatory oversight of pesticides. He also takes issue with over-zealous environmentalism that is not based on scientific fact. The restrictions placed by the Federal government on tools and materials used for predator control during the 1970s are discussed, as well recent actions that have eased some regulations, thus leading to registration of several new rodenticides as well as new efforts in developing materials for predator control.