In the city where pizza rats are as famous as pigeons, New York is trying a new tactic in its long war against rodents: birth control.
What’s happening?
Starting April 26, the city began distributing contraceptive pellets to rats in designated “rat mitigation zones,” hoping to slow their explosive population growth, reported CBS News New York.
The pilot program will begin in Harlem and expand on broader efforts to control the pests more humanely and, hopefully, more effectively.
New York City ranked among the top three rattiest cities in the U.S. in 2024, with an estimated population of 3 million, according to pest control company Orkin. But extermination efforts, including rat poison, have come under fire for harming pets and wildlife — like Flaco the owl, who died last year after ingesting a poisoned rat…