5 ms·

A traditional and effective measure against urban rat populations is stray cats. But for whatever reason people in the west won't allow that anymore.

• Zak 9y ago
  One of the related stories on the site talks about using feral cats: https://wamu.org/story/17/07/07/feral-cats-solve-d-c-s-rat-problem/ https://wamu.org/story/17/07/07/feral-cats-solve-d-c-s-rat-p... There is a program to place feral cats with residents who request them and it has a waiting list. Its effectiveness is debated, and bird advocates don't like it.
• rootbear 9y ago
  I've seen rats in DC that would eat a cat for breakfast. Those suckers are huge!
  • nn3 9y ago
    So you need coyotes instead? They can likely deal with any size rat.
    • tim333 9y ago
      Or rat terriers, controlling rats since 1545 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Terrier
• molloy 9y ago
  Cats can decimate local bird populations as well
• lovich 9y ago
  Because they are indiscriminate. They are not programmed to attack just rats, they will decimate all small animal populations and fight with pets. We could let that happen but that comes back around to having an increasingly human unfriendly environment to deal with the rats