Rats in New York City will be given “the pill” to reduce their numbers, meaning that the Big Apple‘s rodents will have better access to free birth control than women in some states.
Edible contraceptive pellets will be distributed in special rat-accessible boxes in pilot programs in New York City next year, the City Council decided on Thursday. The decision follows a number of trials in previous years—which reportedly cut rat populations by one-third within three months—and news of a successful trial in Boston this summer.
Rats have become a huge issue in New York City and are now almost synonymous with the city. There are said to be 3 million rats there with buildings overrun and subway stations swarmed with the rodents. Rats are prolific breeders and can give birth to up to 13 pups in each litter; the babies are capable of reproducing within a month or so, while the mother is ready to mate again within 24 hours. Consequently, a single male and female can result in up to 15,000 rats within a year and it’s hoped contraceptives will help tackle the problem at the source.
A rat looks for food unperturbed by humans while on a subway platform at the Columbus Circle 59th Street station on May 8, 2023, in New York City. Rats in New York City will be given “the pill” to reduce their numbers, with some Americans noting that the rodents will have better access to free birth control than women in some states.
Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
The handing out of free contraceptives to New York’s rats also presents a startling fact: Rodents in the city will have easier access to free birth control than some American women.
Most women with health insurance can access birth control without out-of-pocket costs under the Affordable Care Act. However, barriers still exist for those without insurance or with religious exemptions from their employers. Variations in health insurance policies and a lack of access to family planning clinics can also limit access to free birth control, according to Medical News Today.
The Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health and rights organization, reported that Alabama, Arizona and Virginia—all with strict abortion restrictions—blocked bills to protect access to birth control this year. And anti-abortion legislators in various states are attempting “to push contraception further out of reach for many people, particularly those with lower incomes,” the institute added.
Rat contraceptives look set to be made widely available in some areas, though.
ContraPest, as it is known, is made by SenesTech. The product prevents rats from reproducing for 45 days after consuming it, according to Sky News. A New Scientist article written in 2017 claims ContraPest worked by making rats infertile because it triggered early menopause in females while impairing sperm production in the males. Newsweek has reached out to SenesTech via an online form on its website for comment.
The company’s website says the contraceptive comes in liquid form and is the “only EPA-approved contraceptive for both male and female rats, targeting the source of reproduction.”
Supporters, such as the animal rights charity PETA, say the method is more humane than killing the rodents and there is no danger of killing other animals by mistake, which is a known risk with poison. Last year, there was an outcry when Flaco the Owl—who charmed New Yorkers after escaping captivity to live among Manhattan’s skyscrapers—was found dead with rat poison in his system.
“We’ve urged New York City to use nonlethal methods to control its rat population for years, and we’re delighted that it’s chosen rodent birth control,” a PETA spokesperson said last week.
Comments comparing rats’ rights to women’s rights in the U.S. come just days after actress Meryl Streep made another unfavorable comparison between the rights of women and rodents.
However, the Oscar winner was not commenting on the U.S. but was referring to life under the Taliban. During a human rights event held by the U.N. General Assembly, Streep noted that “a squirrel has more rights” than women or girls in Afghanistan. The animals are allowed in public parks, while women and girls are not.
“A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not, and a woman may not, in public,” she added. While a female “cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face,” a woman requires a male family member to escort her outside of her home, and her face must be kept covered in public at all times.
