She is New York’s new chief rat hunter

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According to legend, New York has as many rats as residents. It is unclear whether there are actually nine million, but the British author Charles Dickens already knew that they are a plague. The city has been trying for years to control the plague with the most modern technology. Now she relies on a classic method – and has appointed a chief exterminator for the first time.

Rats scurrying between the subway tracks and messing with the garbage bags on the sidewalks have been part of everyday life in the US’s largest metropolis for centuries: even Dickens complained about the ubiquitous rodents when he visited New York in 1842. A particularly stubborn rat became famous on the internet in 2015 when he jumped off the subway stairs in front of everyone with a giant slice of pizza in his snout.

“Rat Academy” was founded

Over the years, the city government has spent millions of dollars trying to curb the rat population — trying everything from rodent birth control to insect-proof garbage cans to a machine that then-Brooklyn Mayor Eric Adams, 62, unveiled in 2019 and with which animals must be drowned in an alcoholic liquid. Residents can also learn rodent control methods at a “rat academy”. Success is moderate.

In desperation, the city has now resorted to a classic method: On Wednesday, it introduced its first “Rat Tsarina” — aka “Director of Rodent Control,” as Adams’ office says its official title is. He has since risen to become mayor of all of New York.

“Pretty bloodthirsty” candidates wanted

For nearly $160,000 a year, Kathleen Corradi will have to deal with the millions of unloved roommates in New York in the future, as the “New York Times” reports. The former elementary school teacher and waste management expert was firm: “New York may be famous for its ‘pizza rat’, but rats and the conditions they thrive in are no longer tolerated – no dirty sidewalks, neglected plazas and brutally dug embrasures. . more,” she explained.

When the city announced the position four months ago, it was looking for highly motivated, determined and – not entirely seriously – “pretty bloodthirsty” candidates with a certain “killer instinct”. And Mayor Adams, who was once a police officer, declared, “There’s nothing I hate more than rats”. (AFP)

Source: Blick