Animal shelter releases 1,000 feral cats onto Chicago streets to solve rat problem
National Post Staff
One Chicago animal shelter thinks it has an answer to the city’s rat problem — 1,000 feral cats
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© Provided by National Post A picture of a cat a part of the Tree House Humane Society's
Since 2012, the Tree House Humane Society has released 1,000 cats onto Chicago’s streets as a part of their “ Cats at Work ” program.
In pairs of two or three, the feral cats are placed into residential or commercial settings to provide “environmentally friendly rodent control.” In exchange, property and business owners provide the furry pest-controllers with food, water and shelter.
“In most cases, our Cats at Work become beloved members of the family or team and some even have their own Instagram pages,” the shelter’s website says.
Chicago’s problem with rats stretches to 1977, when the city offered a $1 bounty for each rat killed by residents, in a so-called “war on rats.”
Since 2012, the Tree House Humane Society has released 1,000 cats onto Chicago’s streets as a part of their “ Cats at Work ” program.
In pairs of two or three, the feral cats are placed into residential or commercial settings to provide “environmentally friendly rodent control.” In exchange, property and business owners provide the furry pest-controllers with food, water and shelter.
“In most cases, our Cats at Work become beloved members of the family or team and some even have their own Instagram pages,” the shelter’s website says.
Chicago’s problem with rats stretches to 1977, when the city offered a $1 bounty for each rat killed by residents, in a so-called “war on rats.”
How Alberta completely eradicated rats from the province by declaring war on rodent hordes
Within two weeks, The New York Times reported that about 550 rats had been killed, with one family killing more than 40 in their own backyard.
In this century, Chicago topped Orkin’s list of “rattiest” U.S. cities for the sixth consecutive time in October.
According to the pest control company, Chicago had the highest number of rodent treatments performed in a year, followed by Los Angeles and New York.
Tree House Humane Society first started the Cats at Work program as an alternative to poisoning rats, reports WGN.
“We’ve had a lot of our clients tell us that before they had cats, they would step outside their house and rats would actually run across their feet,” Sarah Liss, Tree House Humane Society’s program manager, operations and community cats, told WGN .
The cats involved in the program are feral, meaning they aren’t able to thrive in a home or animal shelter. Usually, the shelter safely traps such outdoor cats and spays and neuters them, before returning them to one of their over 1,000 “feral cat colonies.”
However, sometimes the cats cannot be re-integrated into a feral cat colony, like when an abandoned building housing them is demolished. So, they’re put to work.
According to Liss, the cats a part of the program don’t typically eat a lot of rats, but they will kill some rats when they first arrive at a new location. Over time, much less effort is required on the cat’s part.
“They are actually deterring them with their pheromones. That’s enough to keep the rats away,” Liss said to WGN.
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