People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the supposed animal rights group that regularly euthanizes almost all of the dogs and cats they take in, decided to go after New York City Mayor Eric Adams for, get this, “demonizing rats.”
You see, dear reader, Mayor Adams said Wednesday that he “hates rats” and is seeking to hold an “urban rat summit,” which Gothamist compared to the Yalta Conference near the end of World War II.
The ongoing battle to control New York City’s rodent population has seen some success, with vermin sightings reduced by 15% in 2023, thanks to improved garbage containment and disposal.
However, in a bizarre turn of events, PETA seemed to take offense at Adams’ stance on rats, going so far as to send an ‘Empathy Kit’ with a coffee mug proclaiming ‘rats have rights’ to City Hall, as Fox reported.
PETA’s Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman also said, “Instead of trash-talking rats, Mayor Adams should focus on clearing New York’s streets of the massive heaps of garbage attracting them in the first place.”
That, in and of itself, is not a bad point, even if NYC is doing the work on this trash collection and disposal. But where it gets funny again is when Reiman adds, “PETA is calling on Adams to stop villainizing rats for a problem created by humans and to address this issue with respect and understanding.”
Um, Ms. Reiman, they’re rats. You’re not exactly going to be holding parleys with the Council of Thirteen or Master Splinter through Jonothon Lyons (aka “Buddy the Rat“).
In fairness, however, Gothamist quoted City Councilmember Shaun Abreu, who said, “When you know that two rats can produce 15,000 descendants, killing a hundred rats doesn’t make a difference; killing a thousand rats doesn’t make a difference. We have to address it at the source.”
As a result, he suggested rather than trying to hunt down rats like ratcatchers of yore or barn cats, Abreu suggested improving on containing and collecting garbage around town and looking into sterilizing rats, which is less brutal than flat-out purges and solves the problem more easily.
After all, as Fox reported, rats continue to spread diseases throughout New York, with 24 cases of bacterial illnesses spread via rat urine last year alone, on top of six cases of leptospirosis.
From 2001 to 2023, there have been 37 cases of leptospirosis in the Bronx and 28 in Manhattan, killing six in that timeframe.
Still, Mayor Adams’ call for an “urban rat summit” produced this wickedly funny tweet from a guy named Joe Pontillo on X:
“Migrants would be great at catching rats due to their speed and agility.” – Eric Adams’ next press conference
— Joe Pontillo (@JoePontillo) May 15, 2024
If you missed that one, the good mayor of NYC recently said illegal immigrants crowding the Big Apple could be hired to serve as lifeguards because “they are excellent swimmers.”
Related: New York Mayor Adams Has the Perfect Job for Illegal Aliens (Except It’s So Cringe)
And hey, considering that half of the border crossers are unemployed as my boy Stephen Green noted, maybe when they aren’t rescuing people who are in the Hudson for some reason (or the East River like Kramer), they can moonlight as exterminators.