Like Amsterdam, like New York City, Washington is a rat city. Old buildings and moisture create the conditions for them to thrive. Rats provide the midsized city with classical urban charm.

On the other hand, they’re vermin. As of this week, it’s official: DC Health is putting rats on the pill. The agency is planning to put “edible fertility control bait in areas prone to large numbers of rats.”

Cockburn wonders if putting rodents on birth control is a little like attempting a regime change in a foreign nation. How much do we actually know about the delicate balance of the ecosystem? If we sterilize the rats, what comes next? Must we then move to kill all the eels in the Potomac?

It’s true that rats are a health hazard, carrying diseases like salmonella and the bubonic plague in their feces and saliva. Cockburn advises the health department to start in northwest, particularly Adams Morgan. Yet he hopes that population control doesn’t reach the levels of rat genocide. It would be sad to never experience the small thrill of seeing a rat scurry out of a trashcan in Georgetown again. Besides, they’re hardly the filthiest rodents in this city. Who would we, as a species, be without them?

SPARE CHANGE The Trump administration........

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