New York City's ongoing battle against the pervasive rat population has taken a subterranean turn with the deployment of a special task force aimed at eradicating rats in the city's tree beds, the New York Post reported. Mayor Eric Adams announced on Sunday an $877,000 investment to establish teams that will use carbon monoxide to asphyxiate rats in their burrows located beneath some 600,000 street tree beds. The New York Post described this initiative as turning rat tunnels into graves with a 95% kill rate over seven days, the process takes approximately three minutes, and workers do not need a license to operate the specialized equipment.
Mayor Adams emphasized at a Crown Heights press conference, "We are reclaiming public space, fighting rats and improving quality of life for New Yorkers," Gothamist reported; these efforts come alongside other initiatives like trash containerization to prevent "rat buffets" and the city's first rat czar leading education events and an inaugural "Rat Summit," according to Gothamist. Officials assure that the technique is non-toxic to the trees and surrounding environment, meanwhile animal advocates have criticized the practice with PETA's Ashley Byrne stating, "The long-term solution does not lie in the mass slaughter of small animals who are trying to eke out an existence, just like any New Yorker."
Reports indicate that the rat mitigation strategy is seen by city officials as a necessity, as more than 2,300 rat-related complaints about street tree beds were filed last year. Amidst these concerns, residents of neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, which are expected to see high levels of activity, are being considered in the targeted approach to rat control, which follows the containerization of 70% of the city's street trash and other non-lethal attempts at population control such as a rat birth control program.
Yet, not all voices echo support for this lethal approach; John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, warned in an interview with The New York Post about the cruel and painful deaths rats will endure and the potential for a counterproductive increase in rat breeding following a culling, stating, "There will always be rats in New York City, and a walk through any part of the city shows plenty of food and trash on the sidewalk and streets," he suggested instead that taking care of trash and food waste on the streets would naturally decrease the rat population without the need for carbon monoxide, which also poses risks to humans and pets despite assurances of safety, as per The New York Post.
The initiative, which commences "immediately," will respond to referrals from the city's health department and 311 reports with a team of 12 full-time workers under the direction of exterminators and a forester. NYC Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa told Gothamist, "With this new investment, we're closing that gap. By combining science-based, non-toxic approaches with dedicated staff, we're protecting our trees, our neighborhoods, and our quality of life," as detailed by The New York Post.
