Mayor Eric Adams’ is summoning some of the nation’s leading experts and researchers together for a multiday event centered around a problem that has kept him awake at night since the day he took office: Rats.
“The best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy,” Adams said in a statement on Wednesday, in which he announced that New York City will host its first-ever National Urban Rat Summit this fall. “That’s why we’re holding this inaugural summit, to bring experts and leaders from across the country together to better understand urban rats and how to manage their populations.”
The summit is Adams’ latest move to curb New York City’s persistent rodent population. His administration has high-tech trash trucks and containerized trash cans to combat the city’s “rat buffets.” The mayor also hired a “rat czar” to focus exclusively on the issue.
And early data indicates the aggressive tactics may be working. Reports of rat sightings fell by 15% last year, according to data analyzed by Gothamist.
Jakob Shaw, special projects manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said he Adams’ violent rhetoric about rats concerned him.
“That doesn’t help anyone or anything,” he said. “We really need to respect these animals and work with intention and kindness to address this issue. It doesn’t take a rat summit to come to the conclusion that the millions of pounds of trash left on New York streets all day is providing a constant food source for these animals.”
Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who chairs the sanitation and solid waste committee, applauded some of the city’s recent moves, including trash containerization. He said the summit can lead to more humanitarian methods of dealing with the rat crisis.
“When you know that two rats can produce 15,000 descendants, killing a hundred rats doesn’t make a difference, killing a thousand rats doesn’t make a difference,” Abreu said. “We have to address it at the source.”
Abreu said he thinks the city should begin looking at expanding its trash containerization program and contraceptives that stop rats from reproducing en masse.
The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Cornell University’s New York State Integrated Pest Management Program will hold the summit, which takes place on Sept. 18 and 19.
Experts from cities including Boston, New Orleans and Seattle are being invited to speak on the latest initiatives on “rodent mitigation” and “urban rat management.”
A handful of New York City lawmakers also recently introduced a bill in Albany that would ban the use of glue traps. The traps often result in painful, slow deaths for rodents that get stuck in the adhesive. Last month, PETA launched a “pro-rat campaign” that included sending promotional materials to multiple New York City newsrooms, including Gothamist.
