Protect Our Beloved Pets From The Dangers Of Pest Fumigation

See Hera's story and our mission at Hera's Law.

This is the story of our beautiful family companion, a sweet little girl kitty named Hera, senselessly killed by a pest fumigation company.

It is a story of a personal tragedy with public health and safety implications involving the use of Sulfuryl fluoride (Vikane) gas and exposes how these companies operate in our communities with little oversight or meaningful regulation.

Hera's Life

Hera liked to spend her days basking in the sun in the garden behind our house. She would play and lay for hours in the tall grasses. She never roamed far and had a peaceful life in our small mountain community where kids and pets roam and play freely across the open yards and forested areas.

The Day The Company Came

The house next to ours was abandoned by their owners for over a year and eventually put up for sale.

One day a pest fumigation company from several towns over came into our neighborhood and tented the house next door.

The sellers and sales agent didn’t announce this in any way to the neighborhood. The fumigation company made no attempt to contact the neighbors in a remote and unfamiliar community.

They quietly came into our neighborhood, flouted the local laws, set up the tent, turned the poison on and left.

Hera usually came inside every night before dark, but sometimes would stay out a bit late. This was one of those nights so when she didn’t return home at dark, I didn’t think much of it at the time.

A Life Cut Short

Probably curious about all the noise and activity during the day at the abandoned house she wandered over and when things got really scary hid under a small step on a side deck thinking she'd run home at the first chance.

The fumigation company didn’t follow state and federal law to check and seal access points into the structure before they turned on the poison and left.

The following morning Hera was still not home and as I looked around for her, I noticed the tented house through the trees.

I had a sickening feeling but tried to ignore it. We searched for Hera for days, contacting neighbors, calling out for her all hours of the day and night.

A Painful Ending

Eventually I walked over to the neighboring property and looked around. Walking along the perimeter of the house I looked down and saw her collar out in front of an easily accessible open wooden step. It didn’t make sense why that was there. My mind raced in panicked anxiety.

I fell hard to my knees and peeked under the step.

There she was, her head right at the opening of the step.

At first I thought she was sleeping and I instinctively reached in and called her name and held her head.

She was cold. I pulled her her lifeless, stiff body out.

She was just inches from the large opening. I sat there on the ground with her body, in shock.

Her collar was off, out in front of the step where I found her. Why? Vikane gas poisoning is painful and long, causing horrifying neurological disruptions. Hera's airways were likely in burning pain and her organs began to fail as she seized and choked dying slowly over hours, her last moments panicked fear as she dug at her neck and tore the collar off.

Hera was only 2 ½ years old when she was callously trapped and gassed to death by the pest fumigation company.

Hera won’t sleep next to my son anymore. She won’t curl up next to us and look at us with those deeply kind and gentle eyes of hers. She’s gone.

A Way Forward, in Hera's Name

In Hera’s name we are initially building a Donor-Advised Fund (and depending on the level of support expanding to a nonprofit) in order to ensure this never happens again to another beloved pet, or child or any other living thing that might hide in an opening of a structure that is being fumigated.

We are partnering with a leading animal law firm in California to take legal action against the pest fumigation company responsible for this tragedy.

The suit will immediately obtain injunctive relief against this company and work to expand that injunction industry-wide with regulations at the local and state levels, starting in California to ensure the following:

These provisions, planned to ultimately be known as Hera's Law, aim to enhance safety measures and ensure the protection of both human and animal residents during pest fumigation operations.

One hundred percent of funding from this and other sources will be used to seed a Donor-Advised Fund in Hera's name to fund the operations of our organization including legal services, advocacy and public education on the use of dangerous pesticide use in our communities. We are dedicated to safeguarding pets and wild animals from the dangers of the pest fumigation industry.

See Hera's story and our mission at Hera's Law.