Rats should get out of our city! With this slogan New York declared a war against rats. The citizens led by Mayor Bill de Blasio pose a challenge to rodents, sparing neither expense no effort. The authorities allocated $32 million for this campaign. “We refuse to accept rats as a normal part of living in New York City,” the mayor said.
Importantly, the money is not wasted for nothing. Some drastic measures will be taken. Old wire waste baskets on streets will be replaced with new steel ones and trash compactors will be installed so that rats will not be able to eat garbage. Besides, the city authorities plan to replace wooden basement floors with concrete ones. In fact, rats are an absolute nightmare for New York citizens. They can be seen anywhere while the most infested neighborhoods are the south-west Bronx and the north Brooklyn. Moreover, the situation in Bronx is getting worse: the leptospirosis, a dangerous infectious disease, broke out there. The residents of this borough are recommended to avoid the areas where rats gather and to wash their hands more often. For example, people may get infected if they hold a handrail which a rat ran along and then rub their eyes.
The problem is really getting more pressing. According to the Columbia University, the population of rodents in New York skyrocketed above 2 million specimens in 2014. Now the city aims to reduce this number by at least 70%. The main reason for a rapid growth of rats is bad sanitary conditions in the city.
