Dogs Used To Hunt Rats In Manhattan [Video]
Dogs are being used to hunt rats in Manhattan. Richard Reynolds, the unofficial leader of the group, jokingly calls the pack of dogs the Ryders Alley Trencher-fed Society. RATS.
The hunting pack has included a squirrel hunting feist, a Patterdale terrier, a Jack Russell mix, two border collies, a dachshund, and various others. The dogs and their owners have been meeting once a week for over 10 years.
As reported by Fox News, the group leads their dogs down alleys hunting for rats, which, if caught, are collected in trash bins at the end of the evening. The dogs seem to enjoy hunting, and their owners feel they are providing a service to a city plagued with the rodents.
Dogs hunting rats in Manhattan are not only unusual form of pest control in the city. As reported by Business Week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to administer oral birth control to the rodents.
In a combined effort with with Flagstaff pest control, the transportation authority has identified a product that effectively sterilizes female rats.
As rats in the city have unlimited resources for food, scientists had to develop something specifically appealing. The sterilization product will be introduced to the rats in a semi-sold and liquid form.
The product, called ContraPest bait, contains mostly sugar, salt, fat, herbs, and VCD, which is an industrial chemical that will cause the sterilization.
The ContraPest bait will be placed in rooms used to collect trash in subways. The bait boxes will be outfitted with equipment that will monitor the rats’ activity. The developers point out that ContraPest is not a hazard to humans.
The eventual goal is to reduce the rat population in New York City by 75 percent.
Through the years, officials in New York have gone as far as releasing poison gas and organizing hunting parties with guns.
The newest hunting parties don’t involve any weapons, other than dogs. The dogs are used to hunt the rats in Manhattan, but it is not likely that they have impacted the city’s rat population. However, their owners say that the dogs are having fun.
