City of Ottawa looking at using contraceptives to help control the rat population

they are facing a different kind of problem in the city of Ottawa new construction is disturbing rat habitats pushing them into new communities city council is trying to figure out how to deal with the infestations one suggestion rat contraceptive ctv’s Jia bman reports through Alys and sewers rots are scaming their way across many Canadian [Music] cities these rather large rodents were spotted in Ontario we literally have like New York r in water that’s the crazy part and so some Canadian municipalities like Ottawa are looking at a fix that New York Infamous rats Central and other American cities are studying contraceptives instead of being a poison in the typical way it’s a bait so it’s a very tasty sweet food uh that rats like to eat but it isn’t lethal so rats don’t die after eating it they reduce their ability to have many many many babies the math on this one is pretty astounding a female rat could have 15,000 descendants within just a year some early data south of the borders suggest some birth control pellets that would work on both male and female rats maybe promising Pest Control reducing the rat population by up to 90% rat poison can be harmful to humans and to Wildlife that eat poisoned rats we can’t poison our way out of this the issue came under scrutiny in New York earlier this year after a beloved owl Falco that had escaped from the Central Park Zoo and roamed free for a year was found dead with rat poison in its system the active ingredient is cotton seed oil which is a naturally occurring food additive that has this effect specifically within rat populations the product hasn’t been approved here by Health Canada yet the Ottawa city councilor says she wants the federal government to speed up the process jeia BOS CTV News Montreal

The city of Ottawa is looking into using contraceptives to help deal with the city’s rat infestation. Genevieve Beauchemin has more.

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