Display Of 90 Rat Carcasses Will Show Off BK Rodent Crackdown

DOWNTOWN, BROOKLYN — Brooklynites may already see the most rats of any of the five boroughs, but have they ever seen 90 in one place?

In a bizarre display of how well a rat-trapping program at Borough Hall worked, Borough President Eric Adams plans to bring 90 of the dead rats to a press conference on Thursday.

The conference will urge the city to take on the high-tech rat-killing program to help with the more than 17,000 rat sightings across the city last year.

"The pilot, which used cutting-edge technology to capture and kill rats in a hygienic, humane, and sustainable way, comes as Brooklyn contends with a rise in rat infestations," the media advisory for the press conference reads.

A representative for the borough president didn't immediately answer how exactly the dead rats would be displayed for their 15 minutes of fame, but they were all reportedly caught around Brooklyn Borough Hall within a month.

Brooklyn as a whole had 6,500 rat complaints called into 311 in 2018, the most of the five boroughs. Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick in particular reported an uptick in their rat sightings.

East Bed-Stuy in particular saw 24 percent more complaints than the 361 its residents made in 2017, the same year Mayor Bill de Blasio launched his Neighborhood Rat Reduction Plan in the area.

Both Bed-Stuy and Bushwick were one of six neighborhoods singled out by the de Blasio administration for a $32 million plan to tackle rat problems where they were worst.

The plan funded rat-proof, solar powered trash compactors, more frequent garbage pickups and tackling rodent-infestations in public housing in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, the Lower East Side, Chinatown in Manhattan, and Grand Concourse in The Bronx.

Adams will be joined by "Rat Trap," Council Member Robert Cornegy, the Bedford-Stuyvesant Gateway Business Improvement Distric and other community groups.