New York has come up with a novel approach to its infamous rat problem – targeting the rodents with birth-control pills.
Under a plan approved by the city’s council, contraceptive pellets will be placed in special rat-accessible traps in a small section of The Big Apple starting next year and the creatures will eat their way to a lower birth rate.
The containers will be checked every month to see how much is left, in order to gauge how the rodents are taking to the product, called Contrapest.
Senestech, the company that makes the plant-based product, claims it prevents rats from reproducing for 45 days per dose, reducing populations humanely without endangering other animals or the environment.
It’s a more effective long-term solution to rat infestations than rodenticides, the firm claims, because their birth rate will always exceed the death rate.
If even a single male and female are left after pesticides are used, they can turn into 15,000 descendants in little more than a year, the company said on its website.
It is non-toxic and poses no danger to other animals or the environment.
Sir Keir Starmer and Benjamin Netanyahu fail to meet in New York despite British hopes for talks
New York City mayor Eric Adams charged with taking bribes from foreign nationals
Scottish-Australian athlete Andy Donaldson ‘beats record for swimming around Manhattan island’
Non-toxic product reduces populations by 95%
Its ingredients induce a kind of menopause in females and limit sperm production in males and, delivered cumulatively over time, Contrapest reduces populations by 95%, according to Senestech’s own research.
The 12-month pilot scheme has been dubbed “Flaco’s Law” as it has been inspired by the city’s famous Flaco the owl, PIX11 said.
Flaco captured the hearts of New Yorkers last year by escaping from the city’s zoo and staying at liberty for a year before being found dead in February with rat poison in his system.
New York infested with rats
An estimated three million rats make New York their home, according to pest control firm MMPC, which based the figure on a widely-quoted 2014 study by Jonathan Auerbach and its methodology.
New York has long been famous for its rat problem, even more so in the age of social media as users post videos of rats scurrying around the city.
Anyone curious to find out more about them can take rat tours and last year, the city appointed its very own rat tsar, Kathleen Corradi, tasked with getting a grip on “public enemy No 1”.
Read more:
Middle East latest – Hezbollah ‘ready for war’
New York mayor ‘accepted bribes’
Police shoot man who didn’t pay for train
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Council member Shaun Abreu, sponsoring the measure last week, said it would also help if more New Yorkers put their rubbish in bins.
When he introduced the bill in April, Mr Abreu said the city “can’t poison” or “kill our way out of this.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) welcomed what it called an “innovative approach”, saying “hats off” to the council for putting “birth control over cruel, lethal methods such as poison and suffocation”.
