Mayor Adams kicked off the two-day summit with a rousing speech in which he likened himself to a hero in the war against rats.
"I don't think there's been a mayor in history that says how much he hates rats," he said. "I dislike rats."
Exterminators weren't invited to the event, and neither were the city's rats. Kathleen Corradi, whom Adams appointed as the city's first "rat czar" last year, described the event as a space where rodent experts could share their philosophical treatises.
We are already losing the WAR ON RATS
Matt Frye, of New York State Integrated Pest Management, entered the rat symposium espousing a more diplomatic approach for dealing with Adams' public enemy No. 1.
"The 'war on rats' mentality may not be the best approach for our urban areas," he said.
Dr. Chelsea Himsworth, founder of the Vancouver Rat Project, compared the never-ending fight to the WAR ON DRUGS β and said health officials should focus on harm reduction instead of eliminating the vermin altogether.
"It can't be solved," Himsworth solemnly declared. "It can only be managed."
"I've handled 700 rats myself," said Byers, who fondly recalled driving around Vancouver in a "rat van," capturing rats, collecting their feces and urine, and even anesthetizing the rodents to pick fleas off their skin.
"They're symbols about a lack of resources in your community," she added. "Rats live in tight social groups, When you remove some, you change how they interact with each other. You're changing how you fight for their social hierarchy. And they do urinate on each other that whole time."
"They're just like us," Corradi, Rat Czar of NYC tells us as she bounds into a planter, pushes aside long stalks of milkweed, and points out the entrance to a burrow. "They want to live in a nice place, have food nearby, and not get into too much trouble if they can."
VICTORY! Rat Birth Control Trial Passes Unanimously in New York City Council
https://www.peta.org/blog/rat-birth-control-program-nyc/
Instead of using glue traps, poison, snap traps, or other methods that maim and kill rats instead of preventing their presence, break the cycle of violence.
Literally Wannsee'd
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Ummm... Cheesed to meet you?
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