New York should learn from Alberta’s success and pursue its own program of rat eradication.
MBD correctly praises New York City mayor Eric Adams for Adams’ desire to eradicate rats. It may sound crazy, but eliminating rats is possible.
The Canadian province of Alberta is rat-free. That’s an area of about 250,000 square miles with a rat population of approximately zero. It’s the largest inhabited area in the world without rats.
Rats are an invasive species. They kill plants, damage buildings, and spread disease. Along with mosquitoes, rats are among the most destructive pests in the world. As a Foreign Policy piece on Alberta’s rat-control program says:
Across the world every year, mice and rats are estimated to cause nearly $20 billion in damage and wipe out as much as a fifth of the world’s food supply. They’re not just enthusiastic gnawers. They’re also prolific urinators, and rat pee frequently contaminates goods.
Originating in Eurasia and coming to the New World on ships in the 1700s, rats had only just begun to spread to Alberta in the mid-20th century.
At that time, Alberta depended on agriculture, and rats posed a significant threat to the province’s economic vitality. So, the provincial government declared war on rats in 1950.
The goal was total eradication, and it has been successful. The provincial government hired rat-control workers and set up a hotline for residents to call when they see a rat. It provided rat poison to residents and launched a public-information campaign to encourage residents to kill any rat they saw. It didn’t just stop at encouragement, though. An article from the National Post says:
This war on the rats wasn’t optional: The province’s Agricultural Pests Act made it an offence for property owners not to immediately eradicate every rat they encountered. Enforcement of the law was largely unnecessary, however. A population of Albertans fresh off two foreign wars were eager to set their sights on invading rodentia.
(If the requisite level of violence was able to be supplied by Canadians, New Yorkers should have no problem.)
Alberta’s total population is only about 4.5 million, but it’s not as though it contains no large cities. Calgary is a city of about 1.5 million, and Edmonton has about 1 million residents. Those are still much smaller than New York, of course, but they are nonetheless rat-free urban agglomerations.
Alberta’s effort has been ongoing for 72 years and will continue. “After many years, rat control has become routine and is a source of pride to the citizens of Alberta,” the provincial government says on its website. “However, the problem is not solved; personnel involved in rat control must continually guard against complacency.”
A Washington Post piece records protestations against Alberta’s program from animal-rights groups, but the provincial government is undeterred. A rat-control official told the Post that after a rat infestation is discovered, “We get a little excited because we don’t get too many. I won’t say it’s fun. But everyone’s on high alert.”
New York’s challenge is greater than Alberta’s because its rat population is already massive and established. But a citywide program would only need to cover about one-tenth of 1 percent of the area of Alberta. The city should learn from Alberta’s success to the extent it is able and pursue its own program of rat eradication.
Adams sounds the right tone in his remarks on rats so far. His administration could make a real difference in the everyday lives of New Yorkers by seeking to eradicate these nasty pests. And even if the effort comes up short of complete eradication, a sizeable reduction would still be welcome.