On: How rats became an inescapable part of city living

[geowwy]

    > From Seattle to Buenos Aires, urban rat populations are rising—as much as 15
    > to 20 percent in the past decade, according to one expert. Charismatic
    > animals like elephants, polar bears, and lions are all in decline, yet
    > inside our cities, we find it hard even with extraordinary efforts to keep
    > rat populations in check.

One big reason for that is the removal of free-roaming cats and dogs from human habitats.

Free roaming cats and dogs have been a part of our society for as long as we've been forming cities, we only recently decided to remove them. Of course it's going to have the knock on effects we're now starting to see,

* vermin

* food waste

* wild animals venturing into cities

* etc.

[hycaria → geowwy]

They went into trash nowadays. Also cats preying on birds and decimating them. There's no ideal solution.

[hobs → hycaria]

Because human cities didnt have gigantic midden piles before? There's no change there.

[escapecharacter → geowwy]

Can we bring back free-roaming cats and dogs then?

[dajohnson89 → escapecharacter]

Cats & dogs can be fatal disease vectors (rabies).

[dymk → dajohnson89]

And cats destroy local bird and wildlife populations. They don’t discriminate on what they hunt.