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By John Dias

NEW YORK – Is birth control the best way to tackle the city’s growing rat population? That’s what New York City Council members are considering. 

A set of bills were introduced Thursday that, if passed, may get better control of the rat population while also helping out other wild animals. 

You can call it retribution: Bird advocates want to see a change. The catalyst is Flaco, the owl that became a New York City icon. 

“While this has been happening for decades, it has taken the death of our beloved Flaco to call attention to these issues,” Kathy Nizzari of the Lights Out Coalition said. 

After escaping from the Central Park Zoo, Flaco flew free for more than a year. In February, the 13-year-old bird died after he flew into a building. Test results showed he was full of rat poison. 

“We can not poison our way out of this,” New York City Councilmember Shaun Abreu said. 

Abreu has introduced the first bill of three, which together are known as “Flaco’s Laws.” If passed, his approach would use rat contraception instead of poison to get control of the city’s problematic rat population. 

“Two rats in a given year can reproduce 15,000 decedents,” Abreu said.