When thinking of New York City, the animals that seem to best represent the city are rats. Resourceful, resilient and vicious, rats are as commonplace as pizza. Whether on subways, apartments or the sidewalk, most people in the city have had encounters with rats. Videos involving the pizza-stealing subway rat and people taking the animals as pets have gone viral.
Despite the humor, there has always been a love-hate relationship with rats in the city, which has recently been veering towards more population control of the rapidly multiplying rodents. The devastating death of the famous Eurasian eagle-owl Flaco who had been found with rat poison in his system, as well as the uptick in diseases from rat urine in sanitation workers, has brought questions on implementing a new method of rat control. On Thursday, April 11, a new bill was introduced in the New York City Council, which would “require the city’s health department to deploy salty pellets that sterilize both male and female rats in two neighborhoods as part of a pilot program.” When considering the many ways of dealing with rats, I believe this approach to rat population control is more humane and can be effective when combined with other measures, such as more effective trash storage.
When considering previous rat control methods like sticky glue traps, drowning and toxic rat poison — as well as hunting by dogs and humans alike — these expeditious methods not only show cruelty but also use up a lot of energy in targeting rats. Rats are intelligent animals, and they are useful to us in conducting research as well. When conducting research on animals, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee ensures ethical and humane research on animals which minimizes unnecessary suffering. The same approach should be taken when dealing with the population control of rats, especially if it is an effort that is relatively inexpensive and uses less energy than more active methods. If a more ethical and humane solution is available in limiting the population of rats, then it should be taken. A pair of rats has “the potential to produce 15,000 descendants in a year.” Killing thousands of rats every year is not a feasible option especially considering the seemingly exponential growth the rodents have undergone. Targeting the reproduction of rats will allow less and less of the animals to be produced every year, making the population more manageable.
Contraceptives have been used previously in New York to control the rat population, but officials attribute their failure to the birth control being served in a liquid form as well as a lack of pairing contraceptives up with more effective trash storage and disposal. In contrast, the contraceptive being used this time around is called ContraPest. ContraPest disturbs reproductive functions in rats by targeting sperm cell production and ovarian function. One dose of the contraceptive prevents the reproduction of rats for 45 days. The form of the contraceptive comes in pellets filled with fat and salt which taste sweet and delicious to rats, providing an alternative to trash or even pizza! When tested in the subway, the contraceptives showed “promising results” according to transit officials and are cost-effective as well, with an expense of about $5 per pound. More importantly, ContraPest doesn’t harm other wildlife, so it serves as a humane way of rat limitation, which doesn’t strain the environment. Paired with more efficient trash storage methods that prevent rats from getting inside, the pellets will serve as a delicious and preferable alternative that has a higher potential of working more effectively than previous contraceptive methods.
Overall, it is better to think in the long term when dealing with rats, especially considering their talents in survival and reproduction. The new bill introducing the use of the contraceptive method ContraPest will help limit rat populations more humanely and more effectively by targeting reproductive function, especially in its pellet form and when paired with better trash disposal techniques. The rat race isn’t over yet, but recalling the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady always takes first place.
Saisha Islam, FCRH ’25, is a biology major from New York
