{"id":183,"date":"2024-04-11T15:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/?p=183"},"modified":"2024-06-11T14:17:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:17:55","slug":"the-city-flacos-law-with-bird-bill-city-council-pushes-plan-b-for-rat-control-to-protect-feathered-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/2024\/04\/11\/the-city-flacos-law-with-bird-bill-city-council-pushes-plan-b-for-rat-control-to-protect-feathered-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"The City: Flaco\u2019s Law: With Bird Bill, City Council Pushes Plan B for Rat Control to Protect Feathered Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

By Katie Honan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York City Council on Thursday introduced a bill to protect the city\u2019s wildlife \u2014 inspired by the death of Flaco the owl and other birds of prey sickened by eating poisoned rats.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlaco\u2019s Law\u201d would include changes to how the city mitigates its rat population, encouraging a different kind of birth control for the rodents \u2014 instead of poison. <\/p>\n

Councilmember Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), who introduced the rat contraceptive bill, argued the city shouldn\u2019t just keep pumping pesticide at the problem. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t poison our way out of this, we cannot kill our way out of this,\u201d he said, noting the unintended consequences of using rodenticide \u2014 like a Rottweiler puppy who died after eating poison<\/a> while walking in Washington Heights. The poison also contributes to untold animal deaths each year, including Flaco\u2019s<\/a>, THE CITY previously reported.<\/p>\n

Under his proposed bill,<\/a> the city\u2019s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would work with the Department Sanitation to launch a pilot program to send out pellet-like contraceptives in the city\u2019s \u201crat mitigation zones<\/a>.\u201d There would be at least two pilot program areas covering at least 10 city blocks and last at least half a year, per the bill. <\/p>\n

The pellet would work better than other previously-used contraceptive methods, according to Abreu, who chairs the Council\u2019s Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management. <\/p>\n

He pointed to other rat contraceptive attempts, like in Bryant Park recently<\/a>, that weren\u2019t that successful \u2014 but said the pellets would work better. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s salty, it\u2019s sweet, and it has fatty materials within it that attract rats,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ll bring that back to their burrow for other rats to eat.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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

By Katie Honan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York City Council on Thursday introduced a bill to protect the city\u2019s wildlife \u2014 inspired by the death of Flaco the owl and other birds of prey sickened by eating poisoned rats.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlaco\u2019s Law\u201d would include changes to how the city mitigates its rat population, encouraging a different kind of birth control for the rodents \u2014 instead of poison. <\/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-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","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=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}