City Council declares public health emergency over severe rat infestation

City leaders working to resolve what they are calling a severe rat infestation in parts of northeast Philadelphia. Neighbors say they're fed up and they're asking the city to get creative in fixing this long-standing health issue. And Dylan, now even PETA, says it has a solution. Yeah, Dawn, good evening. We're at the 3000 block of McGee Avenue here in Mayfair where residents are so fed up. They say, obviously, that rats are becoming a huge public safety concern here, and they're willing to do anything to stop that spread, and that includes, yes, I said this right, birth control. When I saw that rat, I said, oh, man, please, not again, not again, please. Philadelphia native Timothy White just moved into a home on the 3000 block of McGee Avenue last week. He was hoping for peace and quiet, but instead has been dealing with a slew of unwanted house guests. I see this little rodent walk by, nice and calm, went down the crack. So I said, whoa, maybe that's just for right now. Once again, I come outside at night, I see two of them. These rodent concerns here, which bring disease and infrastructure damage, along with sections of Oxford Circle and Castor Gardens, are now part of Resolution 26819 passed by Philadelphia City Council last week, urging local agencies to treat this rodent infestation as a public health and quality of life emergency. What I'm asking right now is for the city of Philadelphia to do what other cities are doing. Take this as a serious, serious thing. The administration to come together with sanitation, streets, as well as public health. In the past week, several agencies, including PETA, have weighed in, suggesting in a letter and on a mug to Mayor Cherelle Parker that instead of exterminating options, maybe contraception and ordinances are the answers. We're basically rolling out the red carpet for rats and then blaming them when they show up. And the truth is that all of these rodent killing methods, whether we're talking about poisons or glue traps, don't actually work to reduce rodent populations in the long term. And that's why we've asked the city council to be laser focused on truly effective solutions. Philadelphia is annually ranked in the top five by pest companies relating to rat infestation. But PETA added by taking a more humane approach with products like ContraPest to stop reproduction, other big cities have curtailed those concerns. So cities around the country are already having success with these rodent birth control products. Baltimore's Department of Public Works reported that their pilot program was so successful that they're expanding it to be citywide. City Council has not commented specifically on PETA's ideas and is currently starting with educational initiatives on properly storing trash. but residents in these northeast philly communities say they're really open to anything i think they need to put something out here something to slow them down something to put them to bed anything but nothing and back out here live if you see any rats in or around your residence you can reach out to the city department of public health they'll help of course with pest control resources that number is 215-686-9000 reporting in northeast philadelphia dylan scott fox 29 news all right Dylan, hopefully they can get to the bottom of this and find some solution. Thank you.