Republican Curtis Sliwa Proposes Unheard-Of Solution To NYC’s Rat Crisis

 Former Republican New York City mayoral candidate and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa spent Sunday trying to convince his Brooklyn neighbors to use feral cats to curb the city’s rat infestation crisis.

Sliwa traveled around Brooklyn, talking to locals about establishing a feral cat colony in the area as a natural means of controlling the growth of the city’s rat population, according to the New York Post. He was joined by two police officers, who reportedly sat in their car and watched the former candidate, telling the NY Post that they were “just finding out what [was] going on.”

Sliwa reportedly managed to convince at least one of his neighbors to help build and maintain the colony, the NY Post noted. “To be honest with you, we’re not really concerned with the mayor. We’re concerned as citizens. We want the rat problem in our neighborhood taken care of,” one neighbor told Sliwa. “The problem is people are dirty, so we need sweepers to come sweep the street and pick up the garbage.”

The city has tried various means of dealing with the out-of-control vermin problem, including the use of alcohol in 2019. 

New legislation signed in November includes the creation of rat mitigation zones, codification of garbage times, and strategies to cut down the number of rats at construction sites. New York is already hiring people to tackle the rat problem, including for the role of Rat Czar.