The French capital has been dealing with the increasing rodent population for years. But now the mayor Anna Hidalgo He wants to turn this situation around with an unusual proposal to the Parisians: live with rats.
The administration of the socialist mayor announced the creation of a special committee in charge of explore how the two million city dwellers and the six million rats can live in harmony.
“Under the direction of the mayor, we have decided to set up a commission to investigate the issue of coexistence,” said Anne Souyris, the city’s deputy mayor for public health, at a council meeting in Paris.
According to Souyris, a member of France’s Ecologist Party, the commission will be tasked with finding a solution that is “as effective as possible” and also “not unbearable” for Parisians, he said. The Telegraph.
The announcement comes nearly six years after the city launched a failed 1.5 million euro ($1.6 million) plan to curb the city’s rats.
Animal rights groups applauded the announcementwhat they said is the result of more than two years of lobbying city officials.
Amandine Sanvisens, co-founder of the Parisian Animaux Zoopolis activist group, said it would be “cruel” and “ineffective” to spend so much money fighting the city’s rats.
He also referred to the use of anticoagulants – one of the city’s most common methods of killing rats – which cause internal bleeding and a slow and painful death. “Rats also become more resistant (to blood thinners) over time, so it doesn’t work”, assured Sanvisens.
Instead, the activist suggests investing in hermetically sealed garbage cans around the city to limit rodents’ access to waste, and using an oral contraceptive for rats called ContraPest, which reduces fertility.
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On the other hand, critics of the new approach accused the Hidalgo administration of not taking the problem seriously.
“Anne Hidalgo’s team never disappointssaid Geoffroy Boulard, mayor of the city’s 17th arrondissement. “Paris deserves better,” said the official, who has long criticized the proliferation of rats in the city.
Source: Eluniverso
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