New York City kicked off its first-ever Urban Rat Summit on Wednesday, with Mayor Eric Adams declaring a “war on rats” in his opening remarks at the event.
The two-day event will take place at Pier 57 in Manhattan and will be attended by officials and scientists from cities across the United States and Canada.
“I never expected so many people to come together to talk about rats,” Mayor Eric Adams said in his opening remarks.
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There are an estimated 3 million rats in New York City, according to pest control company MMPC, and the National Park Service reports that rats can carry diseases to humans, including hantavirus, leptospirosis, rat-bite fever, and salmonellosis.
“I am excited to welcome our friends in the War on Rodents to our great city for the first National Urban Rat Summit,” Mayor Adams said in a press release. “I look forward to sharing new strategies and best practices for rodent mitigation and reduction during the summit.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made rat eradication a priority during his term as mayor, appointing Kathleen Corradi as citywide rat control officer in April 2023. Mayor Adams also established a fourth “rodent control zone” in Harlem last year.
Pictured is Mayor Eric Adams flanked by city commissioners during this week's off-topic press conference in the City Hall Blue Room, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. During the press conference, Mayor Adams spoke about recent budget cuts, the immigration crisis and the recent FBI raid on individuals connected to his mayoral campaign. (Luis C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Another weapon in the “war on rats” comes from New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who plans to put an end to “all you can eat rats” by stuffing the 14 billion pounds of trash the city produces each year into containers.
Mayor Adams has called New York City's rat problem a “real quality of life issue,” and in his opening remarks Wednesday, he said he has been consulting with leaders of cities around the world who face similar concerns.
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“I spoke to the mayor of Paris, and they're just using the sewer system and dumping their garbage there,” Adams said, “so there are different methodologies to address the real issue of quality of life.”
Adams also shared horror stories from residents who have had rats in their homes and around their families.
A rat was spotted on the streets of New York, USA, on October 19, 2022. According to the latest government statistics, reports of rat sightings across the city have increased by 71% since the same period in 2020. There were approximately 21,000 reports by the end of September. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency, Getty Images)
“I remember when I was chair, a group of mothers came up to me and showed me pictures of rats crawling into their babies' beds and eating food off their faces,” Adams recalled. “Rats were affecting their health, they were affecting their mental well-being.”
“You just imagine lifting the toilet seat in the morning and a rat coming out, or a rat coming out of a garbage bag. You pick up your trash and put it outside and you see a rat scurrying around at your feet. You think about it all day,” Adams said.
The Urban Rat Summit continues on Thursday, with programming focused on “framing the urban rat mitigation challenge encompassing parks, sewers, construction sites, public housing, yards and alleyways, and trash containerization,” according to a City Hall press release.
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“Thank you for being here. Let's cheer up. Let's share ideas. Let's figure out how we can come together against what I consider public enemy number one: Mickey and his gang,” Adams concluded.
