Councillors chew over anti-rat offensives, discuss strategies
Rat owners are a small group, but say these quiet, clean, misunderstood rodents make great pets
Introducing, the cost-neutral rat control methods.
No, it’s not Ottawa’s hot new punk rock band.
It forms a recommendation that city council will consider on Wednesday as municipal politicians eat up more time on rodent problems.
Coun. Mathieu Fleury is behind the latest batch of rat recommendations as the community and protective services committee this week agreed with his proposal to see if staff can scurry around parks and abandoned buildings pushing out the nuisance critters.
The city has a three-department anti-rat task force and is nearing the end of a two-year pilot project that monitors rats in sewers with closed-circuit television cameras. Public works and environmental services, emergency and protective services and Ottawa Public Health make up the anti-rat squad.
There has been an increase in rat complaints to the 311 centre over the past five years. They number in the hundreds each year: 579 in 2018, and 442 this year, as of July 25.
The sewer cameras recorded 23 rats in 2019 as of July, up from eight in all of 2018.
The problem, city staff have said, is that “rats’ behaviours are very hard to predict.”
Fleury’s anti-rat recommendations, which received unanimous support from the committee, call for the city to adopt methods that won’t cost taxpayers a dime, including prevention tactics in parks, rat inspections in the twice-annual inspections of abandoned buildings, and orders for property owners to remedy infestations.
He also wants options for baiting rats before demolition and construction projects.
The city’s legal department was also dragged into the rat debate during the 23 minutes spent on the matter Thursday.
Coun. Keith Egli seemed eager to claw away at Fleury’s rat motion, seeing that it might not actually be legal to force anti-rat protocols on developers during the process of getting demolition permits. Municipal staff must follow provisions of the provincial building code and planning act.
Why waste staff time researching rat ideas when those ideas might not be legal, Egli asked.
Fleury wouldn’t back down from his anti-rat propositions, but he was fine with city lawyers looking into the ideas.
So, city lawyers could take some of the teeth out of Fleury’s motion before council considers it Wednesday.
Other municipalities have strong anti-rat programs that Ottawa should consider, he said.
“We’re really deep in an issue we’re losing focus on,” Fleury said.
Who’s responsible for rats on the surface, Fleury wondered.
There’s baiting in sewers and enforcement of property standards, and both have city departments with oversight.
But when a rat is on the move in a park or on a road, no one at the city seems responsible, he suggested.
“No one owns that rat. They don’t necessary live in a dwelling, so there’s that gap,” he said.
Coun. Riley Brockington said there are rat issues in his River ward, with neighbourhoods now seeing rats where they hadn’t before.
“Not something I’m proud of, but that’s the reality,” he said.
There’s a correlation between the sudden appearance of rats and infrastructure work nearby, Brockington said staff told him.
Brockington, who acknowledged he’s not a “rat expert,” suggested that the city could put bait sewer lines around new infrastructure work before rodents overrun neighbourhoods.
“My concern is, we’re very reactionary to rats,” he said. “I want to see proactive work done.” jwilling@postmedia.com twitter.com/JonathanWilling
WASHINGTON When Abby Chronister started college six years ago, she found herself struggling with anxiety and depression. After class, she often retreated to her bed. That’s when she adopted her first two rats, Luci and Lena.
“Those little critters are what made me get out of bed, knowing I had those little lives to care for,” said the 25-year-old graphic designer from Mission, Kan.
“They bond with you like a dog does. You might not have the energy to walk a dog, but you can manage to fill a water bottle.”
Chronister kept her rats in a cage tucked in the corner of her dorm room. They were quiet. They were clean. And her roommate loved them.
Rats might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect pet or a soothing companion for anxious times, but they have a following, albeit small.
About four per cent of pet owners have small animals, according to an online survey of 10,000 current pet owners by the American Pet Products Association, a notfor-profit industry group. And of those animal owners, only six per cent own a rat or mouse — well behind guinea pigs (27 per cent), rabbits (27 per cent) and hamsters (25 per cent), but ahead of gerbils (four per cent) and hermit crabs (two per cent).
Most pet rodents — such as gerbils, hamsters and guinea pigs — tend to bite, said veterinarian Cory Bassett, who specializes in exotic pet care. They are more anti-social and skittish because they are bred for quantity, not personality, she said.
But rats specifically bred to be pets, she said, are calm — and do not tend to bite the hand that feeds them, she said. They also seem to bond emotionally with cage mates and owners.
“Rats are a misunderstood pet,” Bassett said. “People think of them as vermin and pests. People who think they are really gross just don’t realize what they have to offer. If you are looking for a rodent pet that you are going to have a personal connection with, I would recommend a rat.”
The general public primarily buys pet rats at two places: retail stores and private breeders also called ratteries.
Private breeders often buy their first rats from retail stores then selectively breed them for several generations. Called Fancy rats, these creatures are bred to be friendly, curious companions. Their price can range from US$25 to 100 each, depending on the length of its family tree. Rats selectively bred over several generations cost more than rats bred just once.
Rat lovers tend to agree that the critters have only one major flaw: They die too soon.
“They only live two to three years,” Chronister said sadly, “which is one of the heartbreaking parts because they grab hold of you and they never let go.”
Yet, the short life span is a major selling point for parents buying a first pet for younger children who can quickly lose interest.
Fancy rats come in seven varieties based on coat, ear and tail types: Standard (short, glossy coat), Rex (curly hair and curly whiskers), Satin (thin, long coat), Bristle coat (stiff, coarse hair), Tailless (born without a tail, similar to Manx cats), Hairless (born without a coat) and Dumbo (ears on the side rather than on top), according to AFRMA. The Dumbo rat is the most popular variety today thanks to its namesake featured in the 2019 Disney movie, Robbins said.
“A well-bred rat will be kind of like a well-bred dog,” said Chronister, who now breeds rats as a hobby and owns Dumbo rats. “They will be friendly. They will be curious. And they will cuddle.”
Bassett said hormones are to blame for the different behaviours. Female rats, hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs all seem to be more independent and active while the males are more interactive with humans. And castrated rats are the friendliest, she said.
Because a female rat can produce litters of six to 12 pups every three weeks, reputable breeders usually only sell these social animals in same-gender pairs. Bassett also encourages rat owners to neuter their pets, a procedure that can cost about $300.
“I discourage people from breeding, especially rats,” Bassett said. “If you don’t know what you are doing, you are going to have a ton of rats in just a month’s time.”
Chloe LaPointe decided to skip the pricey procedure when she adopted two male rats in Bristol, Tenn, where she lives. Then one day LaPointe discovered her boy rat was really a girl with an unusually large protrusion. Now she is caring for 24 rats. “I accidentally had a breeding situation,” LaPointe said. “I’m thinking of getting a bird for my next pet.” Washington Post