Chicago has topped the list for “Orkin’s 2020 Top 50 rattiest Cities List”….. AGAIN!
The Windy City made the list in 2020, making it the sixth consecutive time Chicago has been named a ‘ratty city.’ Not sure whether I should say congratulations or not…
Rounding out the top 5 were Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
As reported earlier in the year from Orkin, “the pandemic-driven closure of restaurants forced rodents to find new food sources. Without food waste to consume, these pests were seen scavenging new areas and exhibiting unusual or aggressive behavior. The presence of rodents became so relevant that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Rodent Control guidance on ways to keep rats and mice out of homes and businesses.”
To combat this problem, the Chicago animal shelter has deployed over 1,000 feral cats into the streets to reduce the number of rats.
Sarah Liss, the Program Manager for the Tree House Humane Society’s Community Cats, reported to Fox News that since releasing the cats, they had noticed a positive difference in the Chicago Streets.
Liss stated that the rat population was “significantly decreasing and even going away for a lot of folks who [were] taking care of [the] cats,” which is when Tree House “put two-and-two together.”
The Program, “Cats at Work,” was initially started in 2012 as an environmentally friendly way to reduce the rat population as well as help the cats.
The feral cats that are released have all been rescued, neutered, and vaccinated. Then 2-3 cats are released into a residential or commercial place with a registered caretaker.
Tree House states on their website that these feral cats would not be able to thrive in a shelter or home environment and, for various reasons, need to be relocated.
“Feral cats can’t come inside and live the life of an indoor cat. They tend to be either extremely destructive because they’re trying to escape the indoor environment, or they hide constantly. They just don’t do well indoors,” Liss said. “So, when a feral cat has to be removed from the environment that they’re used to living in, there really aren’t any positive options for that. It’s either that they get moved to a new place or – unfortunately – they would need to be euthanized because there isn’t an indoor option for them.”
With the support from Tree House the cats in the program are well taken care of and managed for their entire lives.
Unlike most working citizens in the city of Chicago, these “Cats at Work” don’t have to stay cooped up inside on countless video calls. Lucky them. Great job, felines.
