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So, I mean, I was thinking about that answer and I thought, so here is my solutions. Let me kind of put them out. I like 4 points. Basically, why that happens in the first reason is ignorance. I mean, sometimes PCO doesn’t understand that. They’re not following the laws of their state. Let me give an illustration of that. So it would be Massachusetts where I used to do some wildlife control work. A PTO would a lot of them would say, well, I’m doing pest control. That raccoon is a pest. So I’m licensed by the Department of Agriculture to do pest control and I have a vertebrate category. Some states even have a vertebrate category for pest control. That’s a vertebrate. So let me go take care of it. Got it. Without realizing that the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is the governing authority over wildlife. The Department of AG is the governing authority over pesticides. So pesticides refers to the tool where the Department of Fish and Wildlife has authority over the creature. So this is where it goes. So that’s a confusion. There’s actually a letter sent out from the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife that said that all to all the PCOS basically, look, if you’re doing wildlife control work.
And by the way, mice and rats are not considered wildlife. Everybody. They’re not even and they’re not they’re a non-native species. Same way with pigeons and the house sparrows and starlings. Yeah, they’re vertebrates, but they’re not wildlife life because they’re not native to the United States. So that’s why pesticides can be used on those things. Those animals and not necessarily a raccoon per say, OK. But in any event, the divisions of fisheries, while I’ve sent a letter out thereby said, look, you know if you’re doing wildlife control, you’re doing a woodchuck. You’ve got to have a wildlife control operator’s license, period. So that it’s probably the first reason. And I think that’s becoming less of an excuse now as the industry is beginning to grow. And so then we kind of have to move on to other reasons why PCOS are doing wildlife control work illegally. I mean, those that are obviously not all of them are. And I think some of it’s maybe a misunderstanding. Sometimes a PCL will look at a label mate and they’ve been pounded all the time. The label is the law label is the law label
And they read this label and it says this ignite a gas cartridge for use against woodchucks. And they’re like, that’s the law. I’m a PCO. I have the ability to use this pesticide on a woodchuck. This is a woodchuck. I’m using it. Well, that’s true. All that’s true. But they don’t understand that the Department of Agriculture often doesn’t have authority over that woodchuck. It has authority over the pesticide. You still have to have another license to control the woodchuck. Got it. So that was you’d have to have the license to control the woodchuck. Then you would have to have the license to use a pesticide to control that woodchuck.
Because you could control the woodchuck with a trap or a shooting which would be under fish while the division of Fisheries and Wildlife. So that’s so that’s part of the misunderstanding that can occur. Now, understand, some states there are certain wild day animals that are under the Department of Agriculture’s authority or like in my state, for instance, we have animals that aren’t even regulated at all, like Khayat Khayat. So it’s basically a long-legged rat.
You can drive into Montana tomorrow. No license, no nothing. Shoot Chi-Lites all day long. That’s no, it’s it’s a rat. There’s unrestricted. You don’t even have to check your traps. So that’s so that’s how that works.
So that would be the second reason why PCO’s, my opinion, would be doing it illegally. So you first take Durance. The second one would be a misunderstanding. And then third, of course, there’s always gonna be a portion of the society that just doesn’t care. You’re like, well, I don’t advertise it. I don’t want to send my client that I have a longstanding contract with. They have a squirrel in the basement. I’m just gonna go do it. So I think what happens is with some businesses, they’re like, I’m just going to do my own. I’m going to take care of my own clients so I don’t lose them to a competitor. And I’m just gonna kind of do it on the down low. And I’m not going to gun. I’m not going to go looking for the work. I’m only going to do internal customers not send that work out. And then and then the fourth reason, of course, is a lack of enforcement, which is across the board. Right. And no, they’re not gonna get caught.
Stephen M. Vantassel, CWCP, ACEWildlife Control Consultant, LLCBlog: https://wildlifecontrolconsultant.com/
Papers: https://kingsdivinity.academia.edu/StephenMVantassel
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxP_IBhnqcgvX_aRM4f91nQ
Podcasts: https://pestgeekpodcast.com/stephen-vantassel/
Phone: 406-272-5323 Mtn Time
Helping people resolve conflicts with wildlife through teaching, training, writing, and research
