Pet flea treatments are highly toxic insecticides used on cats and dogs to kill fleas, and recent research shows they are getting into our rivers across England.
This is worrying for our invertebrate life in rivers, and the fish and birds that depend on them. This issue was highlighted by Buglife three years ago but no action was taken.
Matt Shardlow of Buglife says:
“Three years have passed since we first highlighted the risk to wildlife from flea treatments and no regulatory action has been taken. The massive over-pollution of all waterbodies with fipronil is shocking and there is an urgent need for the government to ban the use of fipronil and imidacloprid as flea treatments.”
For more information, read the article in the Guardian, and the full scientific paper.
There is a petition calling on the Government to ban these treatments.