{"id":181,"date":"2024-04-10T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/?p=181"},"modified":"2024-06-11T14:10:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:10:04","slug":"new-york-times-the-next-frontier-in-new-yorks-war-on-rats-birth-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/2024\/04\/10\/new-york-times-the-next-frontier-in-new-yorks-war-on-rats-birth-control\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times: The Next Frontier in New York\u2019s War on Rats: Birth Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly 60 years, New York City leaders have understood that they could not kill their way out of the rat problem.<\/p>\n

Rats are prodigious breeders, with one pair having the potential to produce 15,000 descendants in a year<\/a>. City officials have tried repeatedly to give them contraceptives and diminish their ranks, but the rats have prevailed.<\/p>\n

Now, citing advancements in rodent birth control and trash storage, the City Council wants to try again.<\/p>\n

A new bill being introduced on Thursday would require the city\u2019s health department to deploy salty pellets that sterilize both male and female rats in two neighborhoods as part of a pilot program. The pellets would be used within so-called rat mitigation zones<\/a> covering at least 10 city blocks.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s sponsor, Shaun Abreu, a council member from northern Manhattan, predicted that this attempt would be more effective than past efforts, particularly when paired with the city\u2019s broader push to fight rats, which involves putting trash in containers<\/a> and expanding composting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that we need to take a shock-and-awe approach to the rat problem by throwing everything we have at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There is another potential benefit: Contraceptives are not likely to harm wildlife like Flaco, the beloved Eurasian eagle-owl whose death was blamed in part on rat poison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirds of prey shouldn\u2019t have to eat rats that have rodenticide,\u201d said Mr. Abreu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons<\/strong><\/p>\n

For nearly 60 years, New York City leaders have understood that they could not kill their way out of the rat problem.<\/p>\n

Rats are prodigious breeders, with one pair having the potential to produce 15,000 descendants in a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}