Rats, raptors and Californian liberals make a formidable political alliance
"Counting rats in a city may be impossible. But with plump specimens scurrying about during the day on State Street, the main shopping drag in Santa Barbara, a tourist destination in California, it appears that the beach town’s rodents are numerous. In fact, rats seem to be thriving statewide. Louis Rico, of American Rat Control, says Los Angeles’s rat population has probably grown by 50% in five years, bringing public-health problems. His Los Angeles County firm is “busy as heck”. Los Angeles comes second on a ranking of America’s “rattiest” cities by Orkin, a pest controller.
"What is behind the rat boom? Thanks to the end of California’s long drought, more fruit has fallen from trees or is tossed into the compost piles that rats love. Lengthening warm seasons have increased rodent breeding. Also to blame are policies that have restricted homebuilding in California and thereby driven up rents. Homelessness is soaring as a result—California is home to 12% of Americans but nearly half the country’s “unsheltered”, according to federal statistics. The resulting outdoor defecation feeds roaches for rats to eat." . . .
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