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PETA does give a rat's a**: Org slams NYC appointment of rodent Czar to cull the vermin

PETA representative Ashley Byrne said rats will be there in NYC as long as humans will litter and leave garbage on streets

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: PETA has blamed citizens of New York City for the population explosion of rats in the Big Apple, while calling out Mayor Eric Adams’ recent campaign to cull the rodents by appointing a $155,000-a-year “Rat Czar” to handle the crisis. The organization called the appointment a “political ploy” and said that the decision was “inhumane.”

PETA representative Ashley Byrne spoke to the Daily Mail and shared the group’s reaction to the mayor’s decision. She dubbed rats as “intelligent and sensitive creatures” and said that the city should figure out the reason behind the infestation rather than killing the animals. Byrne also claimed that “disgusting human behavior” like littering and leaving garbage on streets has drawn rats towards the city. Rat sightings reportedly increased 71 percent from 2020 to 2023, prompting Mayor Adams to appoint Kathleen Corradi as the “Rat Czar” earlier this month, CBS News reported.

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‘Rats will come and go as they please’

Speaking about Mayor Adams’ efforts to deal with rat woes in New York City, Byrne said, “All you need have to do is walk down the street to see what the issue is. As long as humans are littering and leaving garbage, rats will be there.” She continued, “You can hire whoever, rats will come and go as they please as long as the streets stay filthy.” The PETA rep also suggested birth control and increased city cleanup efforts as reasonable alternatives to Adams’ plans of dealing with the issue. Byrne called the mayor’s appointment of Corradi at an outdoor procession in Harlem's St Nicholas Park a “ghoulish political theatre.” “Holding a conference and referring to the creatures as some sort of malevolent beings gives the appearance of doing something, when in reality, it does nothing. It's just cartoonish and entirely unhelpful,” she told the Daily Mail.

“As long as the garbage is there and being littered across the city, rats will be there. It's worrying that tax payer dollars are being used for a public official to stand at a podium to boast about killing these small sensitive animals. It's reprehensible,” Byrne added. “The city needs to change how garbage is managed. The only effective long-term solution is to treat our city our city differently. A lethal solution will not change that,” she suggested. Byrne also mentioned that “a real solution takes time and effort to bring change in the long-term. It's unfortunate that instead we are subjected to these performances.” She further added, “We need more diligent trash collection, and to get New Yorkers to stop leaving trash on their city's streets and treating it like a garbage dump.”

‘Just enough to flatten the curve’

Social media users were quick to respond to PETA’s comments on Mayor Adams’ efforts to curb the rat population in NYC. “Just enough to flatten the curve,” one user commented on Twitter. “Maybe NYC should have PETA do it themselves instead of demand what they want done,” another wrote. “Someone should tell PETA the difference between a pest and a animal,” one argued. One user questioned, “Really? What about the 12 whales, dolphins, and other marine life dying because of the wind turbines set up off shore in NJ and NY?” while another said, “They should take to the streets to clean up the rubbish, rather than demonstrations.”

What will the 'Rat Czar' do?

PETA’s latest comments against Mayor Adams’ response to the rat infestation in New York City came after the latter announced the appointment of Corradi as Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation and crowned her the “Rat Czar.” “Our new Rat Czar Kathleen Corradi has so many strengths, but most importantly: she HATES rats,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.

The position of the director of rodent mitigation was listed for several months and explained that the job would require undertaking “the impossible” task of reducing the number of rats in the city with the aim of stopping the spread of diseases the vermin usually carry. The listing stated that the candidate would require a “swashbuckling attitude, crafty humor and general aura of bada**ery, a knowledge of PowerPoint, and a somewhat bloodthirsty nature.”

During a conference on Wednesday, April 12, authorities laid out several materials to suggest the weapons that can be used to attack the rat population in the city, including traps, sealant and poisons. Mayor Adams first declared a war on rats in December 2022 ahead of his search for the “Rat Czar.” “There's nothing I hate more than rats,” he said at the time. He also mentioned that he was “fixated on killing rats,” and labeled the animals as “public enemy number one.”

‘100 people get bit by rats every year’

Despite increasing complaints related to New York City’s rat problem, no reports of major health scares or deaths were reported in the past year. However, 34-year-old product manager Andrew MacMillan was the victim of a rat bite last year, the New York Times reported. The man was reportedly walking his dog in Fort Greene Park when the dog sniffed through foliage and caught a rat in her mouth.

“I tried to open her jaws to get the rat out in some harebrained attempt to save the rat,” MacMillan said, but the rat bit his finger and he began bleeding profusely. “Apparently rats have teeth that are like broken glass. I can indeed confirm this to be true,” he said. While MacMillan was prescribed antibiotics for treatment, someone from the Department of Health came for a visit the following day. “Apparently only 100 people get bit by rats every year in New York City, which explains why everyone I have told about this is in some kind of disbelief about it. I guess it also makes me a part of one of New York City’s most exclusive clubs,” MacMillan added.

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