Pied Piper or ‘bloodthirsty rat czar’? New York City wages rodent war
Badass, bloodthirsty and an executor of slaughter is what the city administration of New York City is seeking in its new rodent mitigation officer to find a fool proof solution for the city’s age-old rat menace.
Second to Chicago in being the most rat-infested cities in the United States, as per Orkin’s recent annual rankings, NYC has reported over 21,600 rat complaints this year, which is a steep rise from pre-pandemic times.
Fool proof planning and full-throttled badassery
The NYC Mayor’s Office recently posted a job vacancy for a “Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation” or a “rat czar” as a city hall spokesperson put it, who would be paid an annual salary between $120,000 and $170,000 if he or she fulfils the job criteria.
“The ideal candidate is highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty, determined to look at all solutions from various angles, including improving operational efficiency, data collection, technology innovation, trash management, and wholesale slaughter,” the job posting said.
The job listing said that the candidate should have the ability to “self-manage and conduct rigorous research and outreach,” and have a desire to “be entrepreneurial with an interest in social impact” to be able to develop strategies, manage projects and lead teams.
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Besides, having substantial experience in policy, urban planning, project management, operations, or government, the candidate should also have “a swashbuckling attitude, crafty humour, and general aura of badassery,” the job posting says.
“Rats will hate this job posting. But 8.8 million New Yorkers and your city government stand ready to work with you to reduce the rat population, increase cleanliness, and prevent pestilence,” it adds.
‘Post COVID behaviour the culprit’
According to a report in Associated Press (AP), the Big Apple saw more rats this year than it saw in a decade. Based on inputs from 311 distress calls that were made this year, the report said that around 7,400 rat sightings were reported in April 2022 alone, compared to 6,150 in the same month last year.
The report said that the number of rat sighting between January and April this year was the highest recorded in the city since 2010 – around 10,500 sightings were reported in 2010 while 25,000 were reported in 2021.
Many experts have attributed the increase in rat population to the post COVID-19 behaviour among people. Experts say that people switched to outdoor dining post pandemic, thus enticing rats to come out of their burrows and feed on the leftovers.
Rat experts told AP that rodents need less than an ounce of food daily to survive and usually don’t travel more than a city block to search for food. The quick availability of food, either in the form of leftovers at streetside eateries or in garbage bags on the curbside, thereby increased their sightings.
Asserting that rat sightings are directly linked to human behaviour, Matt Frye, a pest management specialist for the state of New York and a professor at Cornell University told AP that it is often wasted food left in the open that draws rats.
NYC’s battle with rats is not new
In its job posting, the NYC Mayor’s office strictly advises the rat czar or any resident to be sympathetic towards the rodents.
“Despite their successful public engagement strategy and cheeky social media presence, rats are not our friends – they are enemies that must be vanquished by the combined forces of our city government. Rodents spread disease, damage homes and wiring, and even attempt to control the movements of kitchen staffers in an effort to take over human jobs. Cunning, voracious, and prolific, New York rats are legendary for their survival skills, but they don’t run this city – we do,” it says.
Last year at least 13 people were hospitalised after contracting leptospirosis, a blood infection that affects the kidney and the liver, mostly due to association with rats, while one of them died later.
Reports say that while former Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to mitigate NYC’s rat menace by providing more trash cans and ensuring house inspections in vulnerable neighbourhoods, the post-pandemic culture of streetside dining and curbside sheds rendered it ineffective. Subways, the go-to place for rats to find food, also became desolate as curbs were placed on movement of people during the pandemic and the rodents had to scavenge for scraps on the streets.
The new city Mayor Eric Adams, however, is determined to ensure the success of his campaign named the Clean Curbs Pilot. As part of the campaign, the administration would place new containerised garbage bins across the five boroughs in the city. Thus, trash bags dumped by residents wouldn’t have to wait on the curb until collection day and be ripped open by rats. They would instead be held in the large garbage bins until collection day. The first new containers have already been installed in two New York localities.
Adams has been quite vocal about his disdain for rats and recently shared on Twitter an article about the position of the ‘rat czar’.
“There is nothing I hate more than rats. If you have the drive, determination, and killer instinct needed to fight New York City’s relentless rat population – then your dream job awaits,” he wrote.
