(DailyVantage.com) – New York City Mayor Eric Adams has appointed a “rat czar” to get rid of the city’s rat problem after describing the rodents as New York’s chief enemy.
During a press conference on April 12, Adams described rats as New York City’s “public enemy number one” and announced that former New York City Department of Education official Kathleen Corradi would become the city’s first “rat czar” in an effort to deal with the problem.
Adams insisted that it was important to have a dedicated official who could focus solely on the rat problem, which has long plagued New York, and he boasted that Corradi had the “experience and energy” necessary to “send rats packing” and to make New York City a more hygienic place.
The mayor also announced that 19 full-time employees and 14 occasional employees would be hired by the city to help eradicate the rats.
Corradi said at the press conference that while she was initially skeptical of the city’s job posting, which called for a “bloodthirsty” person who could “slaughter” New York’s rats, she was eager to apply as she had a “long history” of trying to fight the city’s rodent problem.
She said that her approach would involve reducing sources of food, water, and shelter for the rats and that the strategy, which will start in Harlem, Manhattan, would require the reduction of litter and dumped food on the city’s streets.
Adams first announced his war on rats in 2022, when he announced, among other initiatives, that New Yorkers would soon be fined for leaving trash bags on the streets outside of designated trash pickup times.
A New York City Health Department report in January 2023 found that rat sightings had doubled in 2022 from the previous year, with 60,000 sightings recorded. Cases of rat-related infections have also reportedly been on the rise, with 14 New Yorkers diagnosed with rat urine-transmissible leptospirosis in 2021.
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