The city of New York will now use birth control pills to manage its enormous rat population.
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New York City’s long struggle against its massive rat population is known to all, and now the city will use birth control pills in a new attempt to reduce the number of rodents inhabiting the megalopolis.
To get an idea of the size of the problem, a survey conducted in 2023 by a local pest control company estimated that around 3 million rats are roaming New York City, an increase of nearly 1 million in just a decade.
However, a new bill passed in the last week of September offers new hope in this war against the rodents. In the coming months, a pilot program will be tested, where a type of birth control pill called ContraPest will be placed in containers designed to attract rats, which will be spread across various parts of the city.
If everything goes as planned, the rats will ingest the contraceptive and then be sterilized. Each dose of the plant-based product prevents these rodents from reproducing for 45 days, reducing populations in a humane way without putting other animals or the environment at risk.
According to PIX11, the pilot program is expected to last 12 months and has been named “Flaco’s Law,” in honor of an owl of the same name that escaped from the Central Park Zoo in 2023 and was found dead after ingesting rat poison.
The plan for controlling the rat population has also pleased PETA; the organization advocating for the ethical treatment of animals expressed hope in the project and, in a press statement, praised the city’s efforts to address its rodent problem humanely.
“Congratulations to the council for taking this great step to save many precious lives and prioritizing effective control methods, such as waste mitigation and birth control, instead of cruel and lethal methods like poison and suffocation,” the group stated.
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