In France, Even the (Paris) Rats Have Rights

[Pedestrian]

By Josh Jacobs and Matthew Dalton
Aug. 10, 2018 11:17 a.m. ET

PARIS—Rats were popping up at supermarkets, parks and nurseries when a city official convened a crisis meeting last fall to discuss ways to cull the population.

That was the first time Geoffroy Boulard, mayor of the 17th arrondissement in northwestern Paris, realized the rodents are backed by a vocal lobby. Ten protesters stepped forward to denounce exterminators’ plans to poison the animals. They urged a more humane method: Deploy birth-control drugs.

Their position was “indefensible, given the scale of the infestation,” says Mr. Boulard. “We can’t get accustomed to having rats in public spaces.”

The city’s pro-rat activists disagree. Rattus norvegicus, the species of rat endemic to big cities, has the right to inhabit the City of Light like any other mammal, they say. The activists regard poisons and rat traps as a form of unusual cruelty. When the city stepped up exterminations 18 months ago, they unleashed an online petition that garnered almost 26,000 signatures . . . .

The resistance movement is good news for Paris’s robust rat population. There is no formal count, a city hall official says. One rat-control expert’s estimate puts it at about four million, a 1.8 rat-to-human ratio . . . .

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-fran...s&page=1&pos=1

[jd3189]

Reminds me of that Disney Pixar movie that came out a decade ago about a rat that wanted to cook. I guess it has a following over there?

[llamaorama]

I suspect this story is blowing things out of proportion. I doubt many people are lining up to save the rats...

That said, poison isn’t the end-all. They need to look at how trash collection operates and make changes. Bags on the ground, no. Also demolition stirs up rats that had been under foundations.

I’ve heard the increase in dog ownership is an issue since rats eat dog poop.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

I doubt many people are lining up to save the rats...

Well 26,000 is pretty specific and for every signer of a petition like that I'm sure there are many people who agree to some extent but are just too lazy or indifferent to act by actually signing.

By the way, I'm kind of pro-rat myself. I had pet rats as a kid.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by jd3189

Reminds me of that Disney Pixar movie that came out a decade ago about a rat that wanted to cook. I guess it has a following over there?

I loved that movie:

Ratatouille
• Video Link

[10023]

They are correct on one level, but rats are not “any other mammal”. They’re a pest that spread from China with human trade and depends on human cities as habitat and food source. They’re one step short of a parasite. It’s not as if Paris is their natural habitat and we have encroached on them.

Everywhere should just follow Alberta’s lead:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/%24depar.../all/agdex3441

[Sun Belt]

1.8 rat to human ratio!

Yes Paris, you must protect those flea bag mammals that are responsible for the deaths of about 60% of the European population just 650 years ago, taking about 200 years for the global human population to recover.

[JManc]

Paris just needs more cats...

[10023]

Originally Posted by JManc

Paris just needs more cats...

They are everywhere in the Mediterranean, but cats wouldn’t do well in Parisian winters, or rain.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by 10023

They are everywhere in the Mediterranean, but cats wouldn’t do well in Parisian winters, or rain.

But Paris isn't really that cold, compared to some US and even Canadian cities with feral or stray cats. There are or once were famous cities with stray cat colonies in climates as cold as Ottawa's for instance (though in the Ottawa case I think the colony was removed as the stray cats ended up being adopted by people, after living as strays for generations).

Though to be fair, I think survival of the cats also kind of depends a bit on the help and care of human volunteers in times when it's rather harsh even when they're mostly living independently.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by JManc

Paris just needs more cats...

• Video Link

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

I’ve heard the increase in dog ownership is an issue since rats eat dog poop.

Ugh, really? Certainly not those tamed as pets. Ha ha.
I assume Pedestrian's pet never had anything that disgusting fot its meals.

But maybe that's why they say having a population of wild rats under control is actually useful, if not necessary.
Wild rats would eat a lot of unhealthy dirt, so they act like garbage collectors.

There are lots of cats in the suburbs. And they sometimes make a hell of a noise from fighting for territory at night.
I think that in fact, French households tend to favor cats over dogs. Central Paris is an exception here.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

By the way, I'm kind of pro-rat myself. I had pet rats as a kid.

I had 6 pet rats as an adult and have been an outspoken apologist of them ever since but they can also be fucking pests, they've caused myriad plumbing problems at my house lately due to gnawing through our plastic pipes so as much as I have defended rats, these French people are nuts

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

Yes Paris, you must protect those flea bag mammals that are responsible for the deaths of about 60% of the European population just 650 years ago, taking about 200 years for the global human population to recover.

This is one of the points I would use to defend them since it was actually lice on the rats that caused the bubonic plague rather than the rats themselves and what's that saying about don't kill the messenger? The rat's public image still hasn't recovered almost 700 years later

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

these French people are nuts

Ha ha, yeah, quite possibly. Bah, most of us ain't real psychos. Like we're basically harmless, so it's nothing wrong.

6 rat pets? That's too many. A single one is already a lot to watch, and you got to keep it in a damn cage when you're off, cause they're so undisciplined, and pretty damn smart for such small creatures.

Rats are smart, people. It's a fact.

I'm a cat person, but one of my best buddies is a rat fan. His rat pets are super funny, cute and very (almost too) friendly.
They're not scared of you guys, that's for sure.

There are even people raising weird snakes and ugly spiders, loving it... Ugh!
So really, rats ain't anything so creepy. They are just mammals like ourselves, eh.

[Busy Bee]

France has a robust strike culture... do they have the union rats? :


_

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

France has a robust strike culture...

Uh, not really at all, actually. I think you need much more information on this topic.

Overly politicized, unions are incredibly naive and weak here,.
In a nutshell, the left wing would be the Jedis, and the boring old farts of the right wing are the dark side of the force.
They're just like fans of Star Wars.

No wonder few French people are unionized. They don't care about local unions, left to some individualistic logics.

Shit, I can hear the bloody cats fighting outside right now....

Anyway, the French don't care much about economics, and that's the basic problem here.

I won't deny, the right wing is usually boring indeed, but the left side is full of cynical ugly people.
So things down here are never as simple as politics. Or say that politics is hardly as binary as simple boolean math would be.
You should never trust manichean people. There is some good and some wrong on both sides.

As a matter of fact, even the US Midwest corporate unions would be de facto more effective than the French ones in defending workers.
At least, they do care about them workers. Leaders of the French unions don't. They're just a bunch of leftist politicians worried about their political careers.
That's about it.

[10023]

^ Regardless of whether any of that is true, strikes are the national sport of France.

And sympathy strikes. I don’t know anyone in Europe that hasn’t been affected by a truck drivers’ strike, or ATC strike, or railway strike, or whatever other transportation related strike in France.

[Phil McAvity]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Ha ha, yeah, quite possibly. Bah, most of us ain't real psychos. Like we're basically harmless, so it's nothing wrong.

6 rat pets? That's too many. A single one is already a lot to watch, and you got to keep it in a damn cage when you're off, cause they're so undisciplined, and pretty damn smart for such small creatures.

Rats are smart, people. It's a fact.

I'm a cat person, but one of my best buddies is a rat fan. His rat pets are super funny, cute and very (almost too) friendly.
They're not scared of you guys, that's for sure.

There are even people raising weird snakes and ugly spiders, loving it... Ugh!
So really, rats ain't anything so creepy. They are just mammals like ourselves, eh.

I had 2 pet rats at a time so when they died I went and got 2 more until all 6 eventually died but by then I had had enough of them chewing on my shit. A couple of the poor little buggers got cancer too.

You're right they are smart, there's a reason they've survived after everything we've done to try and exterminate them

[10023]

I can’t imagine why someone would want to keep rats as pets.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by 10023

I can’t imagine why someone would want to keep rats as pets.

I enjoy any pets that are as smart as humans (in their own way). That means no stupid dogs but I do have a cat who seems to anticipate my every move in advance--she's even a pretty reliable alarm clock in spite of the fact my "wake up" times varies a lot. Rats also are smart critters which is their attraction.