I remember the days when Baltimore used to have citywide rat fishing tournaments, with prizes and cash bounties for dead rats. That's how you engaged the public to help keep a city rat population under control.

Now, DC is so cuck'd by insane extremist laws, it can't even deal with a serious public health crisis.

At this point, I'd like to see bubonic plague make a comeback. It would be poietic justice.

Anonymous wrote:The animal cruelty laws in the city now mostly prohibit killing rats.

The means of combatting them has shifted to containment and securing food sources.


Thank PETA and other similar groups.

It appears that "common rats" can be exterminated . The inability of DC to do so is, indeed, a choice by our politicians however in where their priorities lie. The rat situation is and has been horrifying for a long time now.

"While the law exempts “commensal rodents”--varieties of which most people know (or have seen) as common rats or house mice--the rice rat and deer mouse, which are found in the District, are not defined as commensal and apparently are not exempt from the law."



https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/va-ag-fears-dc-law-may-relocate-rat-families-virginia

The animal cruelty laws in the city now mostly prohibit killing rats.

The means of combatting them has shifted to containment and securing food sources.


Thank PETA and other similar groups.

The recent Post report shows rats at medieval port town levels. How this is not an urgent public safety issue I have no idea, but the allocation of resources and lack of imagination in researching and applying new rat fighting techniques is stunning. The title of the article ("DC GOvt. is doubling down") is totally misleading, as they are doubling down from basically no effort or resource allocation at all. I remember 20 years ago watching a team of DC govt. rat fighters stumbling around our back yard in space suits, and then bashfully admitting they really had zero tools to abate the problem. Yet in the article, they point out that folks who call private exterminators have had success. This is a city wide problem that requires imagination, more resources (garbage handling should be looked at from start to finish), the latest techniques (sterilization? how are we just getting to that), and a bigger budget and staff that is held on the tightest scrutiny so they get the job done. If they can't, DC should contract privately so they have greater success. Shame Bowser and Council for letting rats take over kids play spaces while you focus exclusively on sexy national social justice issues and your pet projects.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/i-saw-13-rats-in-20-minutes-dc-we-have-a-rodent-crisis/2016/10/17/ba7dcef0-949f-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c7f30229170a

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/rat-calls/?utm_term=.e230ec86d0be