Editor;
Re: No outbreaks of “Black Death” anytime soon (PM Mailbag Friday, 08 January 2016) – Overlooking that “sanitation” has come a long way since the 1300’s no one is forcing you to live in a seaside city. There are rats in the palm trees in Palm Beach Florida right now!
Ok Bryan, how would you get the rats to eat the bait when the food lying all over the place tastes better? They are eating food that would make the ocean (more) fetid if they did not consume it. I know in Chicago with “Streets and Sanitation” people they begged complaining residents to secure their trash cans, pick up their pet’s poop, etc., during a baiting effort and every day afterward.
I outlined draconian measures that would never be allowed. It is food cart vendors, sloppy tourists, the sewer runoff. You have an animal where the female goes into heat two times in ten days and are sexually mature at five weeks. Every month they have a litter and they live for three years.
This was why I was suggesting loving feral cats more than soi dogs. Also, it is why I suggest people mellow out because in recorded human history no one has ever eliminated the mouse, rat or cockroach (unless they were on an island).
I don’t know about you Bryan, but this man has lived long enough to ignore things beyond his control. There will be as many of the animal as local conditions allow. That would mean utter cleanliness of all streets, compost heaps, recycling facilities and so on. That will mean closure of open air restaurants and all food carts. Try and get that done. Be certain to get back to me with your progress as I have a crystal ball to gaze into.
Robert
