Mayor Of New York Reveals $32m Plan To Rid City Of Rats

The New York Mayor, Bill de Blasio, has launched a new attack on the city's growing rat population with a $32 million (£24.6m) strategy.

The plan will see the Big Apple's rat population reduced by 70 percent in the city's most infested areas.

Hundreds of vermin-proof steel rubbish cans will be bought, costing $7,000 (£5,400) each, and residents will be asked to put their trash out between 4am and 6am rather than during the day, so it's on the streets for less time.

De Blasio said in a press conference: "I don't know any New Yorker who likes rats. They're dangerous, they're unhealthy."

Credit: PA

Further plans will see dirt basement floors, as seen in public housing blocks, replaced with concrete ones.

Currently there is an estimated one rat per four people living in New York. Awareness of the problem was heightened when one person died and two others became ill from a rare rat-transmitted disease.

However, the Mayor has admitted there may be some difficulty in the project. He said: "[It's] like bailing out a leaky boat - you would get the water out for a while, and then it would just come back. How do you actually cut off the lifestyle of a New York City rat?

"This plan is about going at the root cause, stopping rats from having a place to live, stopping them from having the food that they want to eat."

Credit: PA

During his press conference, the mayor added that some New Yorkers do admire the rats for their qualities of toughness and resilience.

He admitted himself that he had a 'certain admiration' for 'Pizza Rat' - the rodent that went viral after being filmed dragging a slice of pizza twice its size down subway stairs.

Chinatown, the Lower East Side and East Village in Manhattan, Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn will the main focus of the operation.

The most common rat in the city is the brown rat which can grow up to 10 inches long and weight around 12 ounces. However, there have been reports of much large vermin across the city.

Last year, the French capital, Paris, launched a similar attack on its four-million-strong rat population.

Source: Evening Standard

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: New York

Michael Minay

Mike Minay is a trending journalist at LADbible. He’s co-ordinated interviews with some of the big names from the world of news and sport including ITV’s Robert Peston, Sky Sports’ Jeff Stelling and darts champion Michael van Gerwen. His reporting days began on University radio in Birmingham, before moving to BBC Sport Online – creating content for large events such as Wimbledon and the FA Cup final. Mike still commentates on Football League matches at the weekend. A Manchester LAD at heart.

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