New York to use contraceptives instead of glue traps and poison to get rid of rats

Policymakers in New York have proposed contraception to reduce the population of rats and other rodents in the city.

The city government proposed the idea of distributing rat contraceptives after an escaped zoo owl, known as Flaco, died due to rat poison. On Thursday, City Council Member Shaun Abreu, who is the chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, presented a city ordinance to launch a pilot programme for handling millions of rats lurking in subway stations and empty lots by using birth control instead of lethal chemicals used in glue traps and rat poison that lead to a slow, brutal death. He said contraceptives are more ethical and humane than other methods.

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They plan to use ContraPest, which targets ovarian function in female rats and disrupts sperm cell production in males, The New York Times reported.

The current methods to kill rats include snap and glue traps, rat poisons, and carbon monoxide. While rat poisons make them bleed internally, carbon monoxide suffocates them in their burrows. Some non-professionals have even trained their dogs to hunt rats.

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Some lawmakers in Albany have proposed a statewide ban on snap and glue traps. Rashad Edwards, a film and television actor who runs a pest management company in New York City with his wife, opposes the idea of glue traps and says that carbon monoxide is the most efficient way to deal with rats and rodents. While carbon monoxide kills the rats slowly, putting them to sleep and killing them, Edwards avoids rat poison as it is dangerous and torturous to rodents.

"This is not a problem we can kill our way out of," said Jakob Shaw of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "It's time to embrace these more common sense and humane methods."

In recent years, two California cities have passed bans on glue traps. "It ends an inhumane practice of managing rat populations. There are more effective and humane ways to deal with rats," said Jabari Brisport, the New York state senator."

Last year, New York Mayor Eric Adams hired a "rat czar" to deal with the detested rodents. Last month, New York Coty mandated all businesses to put trash in boxes to reduce the food served to rats.

(With inputs from agencies)