One of the qualities that the new “tsar” against rats – as the local press calls him – must possess is “a fierceness against animals” and a “killing instinct to fight the real enemy: the city rats”.
A rodent mitigation manager will receive a salary of $120,000 to $170,000 per year. “Despite their successful strategy of public participation and scandalous presence in the press, rats are not our friends. They are enemies and must be defeated by the combined forces of our home,” reads the ad along with the requirements for the newly appointed vacancy. , without lack of humor.
“The New York rats are known for their ability to survive. But they don’t run the city. We run them,” recalls Jessica Tesch, chief of the Department of Public Health, who recently began selling T-shirts with that slogan for $48.
In the capital of consumerism and extroverts, where there are almost no containers for organic and inorganic waste and mountains of trash bags are piling up on the sidewalks, mice are a common sight in the landscape and passers-by should be careful not to step on anyone.
In the first four months of this year, the city council’s emergency line received 7,400 calls warning of the presence of rats, up 60% from the same period in 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Legend has it that there are as many rats as there are humans in the city – about nine million – although this myth has been disproved by a local statistician.
Authorities resorted to poison, birth control pills, trained dogs, the use of dry ice or dry ice, sticky traps and alcohol drowning to combat them. All without much effectiveness.
The local authority is also trying to get New Yorkers to strictly adhere to set times for dropping off rubbish, under penalty of hefty fines.
The city’s mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, often repeats that “there’s nothing I hate more than mice.” “Cleaning up our city and ridding our streets of these filthy creatures is essential to our recovery,” the former police officer, who took over in January, said recently.
The creation of the new position coincides with the decision taken by the city council a week ago to cut 4,700 jobs at the time of the budget adjustment and with the outsourcing of some municipal services.
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