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By Hiyah Zaidi

New York City is considering giving contraceptives to rats to control their numbers and apparently, it’s ‘better than pizza’. 

As the city continues its 200-year-long battle with rats, the state’s authorities have realised that killing them is not an effective solution. 

But despite previously trying contraceptives, advancements in pest control have led to the City Council to try again, and a new bill will see the city’s health department distribute salty pellets that sterilise both male and female rats as part of a pilot. 

The programme will cover two neighbourhoods within ‘rat mitigation’ zones and cover at least 10 city blocks.

The move comes after lawmakers put an end to using poison following the death of Flaco, New York’s beloved Eurasian eagle-owl, who died from consuming rat poison. 

City Democratic council member Shaun Abreu introduced the bill and said this attempt will be more effective. 

‘We believe that we need to take a shock-and-awe approach to the rat problem by throwing everything we have at it,’ he said.

‘Birds of prey shouldn’t have to eat rats that have rodenticide.’