Paris Facing a 'Rat Crisis,' NY Times Reports

Paris is facing its worst rat crisis in decades, the New York Times reported. Nine parks and green spaces have been closed either partly or entirely. Some, like the Champs de Mars, home to the Eiffel Tower, is being “de-ratisized” in sections.

As the Times reported, some rat-infested places cannot be completely closed, like the shrub-filled Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, which runs through a neighborhood with little green space and is beloved by mothers with strollers as well as joggers — but also, it seems, by packs of rats.

Some believe the European Union and its faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats are to blame, the Times reported. New regulations from Brussels, the European Union’s headquarters, have forced countries to change how they use rodenticides, said Dr. Jean-Michel Michaux, a veterinarian and head of the Urban Animals Scientific and Technical Institute in Paris. Specifically, Paris has transitioned away from burrow baiting to the use of baits placed in rodent bait stations.

The challenge, the Times noted, is that in Paris rats can easily find a three-course meal much of the year within a stone’s throw of their burrows.

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Source: New York Times