At the end of September 2024 in New York, with a population of around three million rats, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) decided to get down to business.
The objective being to reduce the number of rodents, the DOHMH and the municipality adopted a non-lethal project, opening access to contraception for New York rats. A decision which above all makes it possible to regulate births via a pill, as Futurism tells us.
With or without the signature of Mayor Eric Adams, the project should be formalized as a full law within the next thirty days. Thus, in certain districts of the city, contraceptive pills adapted to rodents will be placed, as an alternative to rat poison.
Because it is a problem that the city cannot get rid of. The current explosion in the rat population is due in part to a shrinking budget for the city’s Department of Sanitation, as well as an increase in outdoor dining on the streets. Not to mention the traditional piles of garbage bags on the city’s sidewalks.
Mayor Eric Adams takes this rat invasion so seriously that in April 2023 he appointed a municipal director of rodent control, Kathleen Corradi (nicknamed “rat czar” by the media). Still as part of his fight, the mayor organized a summit on rats this summer, in order to exchange ideas on the fight against these small animals, where he presented a new model of anti-rat trash cans, which he wishes to make OBLIGATORY.
On the occasion of this summit, he even wrote about (formerly Twitter): “If you hate rats as much as I do, you won’t want to miss the opening of our first National Urban Rat Summit.”
A sad reality
This new contraceptive project for rats goes badly, because it is introduced two years after the annulment of the Roe v. Wade, who challenged the right to abortion in the United States as a constitutional right. Which led to many reactions on social networks, like the following.
“New York City plans to provide birth control pills to rats. Which means it’s easier to get access to contraception as a rat in New York than it is for a woman in most of the United States. posts a user to X (formerly Twitter).
Since the ruling was overturned by the United States Supreme Court, several American states have significantly restricted women’s right to abortion. Experts fear that this decision will also have devastating effects on access to contraception.
Currently, according to the New York Timesfourteen states completely ban abortion, even in the case of rape or incest, including Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Source: www.slate.fr
