One of the city’s wards has a unique solution to its rat problem.
The 50th ward is putting to use a program called Tree House Cats at Work Project, relying on sterilized and vaccinated feral cats – rather than traps or poison – to deal with rats.
“They claim that these cats reduce the rat population in the neighborhood and we thought we’d introduce this to the constituents to see if anyone is interested,” Alderman Debra Silverstein said.
The project supplies the feral cats, while homeowners with the rat problem provide outdoor shelter and food. The feral cats do the rest. Experts say the warm weather has not helped the rat problem.
“The gestation period is 21 days, so 21 days from last week's warm weather there's going to be a large increase in the rat population,” said Paul Nickerson, who helps run Tree House Cats at Work Project. “The cats are the real winners.”
Homeowner Victoria Thomas is sold on the program. She said rats were destroying her backyard until she received three feral cats.
“In the beginning you’d see a lot of the dead rats,” Thomas said. “They would kill them and eventually the rats realized it’s not a safe place to come to.”
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“You feed them and they are fat and happy and it’s playing for them to catch and kill the rats,” Nickerson said.
More than 6,000 feral cats have been saved by the program, officials with the project said.
