I just got this email about rats in Prospect Park.
I don’t want to start any panics but this might be important especially to parents. The past week or so I have come across three rats in Prospect Park on the Prospect Park Southwest side in the vicinity of the children’s playground off of Vanderbilt. Each encounter was not in the playground but some 25 to 50 yards (as best I could guess) away on the inside path.
I reported this to the parks department via 311 after my last encounter. That was the most chilling as I literally walked into one. I was “speed” walking on the interior walk and it was fairly dark from the shade and I wasn’t looking at the ground. So I don’t know if it was just standing there or if it had run across my feet. But I did see it scramble away . . .
What’s really sickening is not the rats in Prospect Park, but the human response. We want to live near the park, to enjoy the natural setting. However, when the environment proves to be just that, we panic.
Rats are the geniuses of the rodent world. They are affectionate, & do not pose any sort of threat to humans who share the park with them.
Now, thanks to the panic button pushers, the Parks Department has laced the area around the lake with Talon-B. I worry much more about poison, than I do about a rodent.
Among the effects is the threat posed to predatory birds, such as owls & hawks, & other non-target mammals, such as your dogs or your kids.
Rats are a normal part of the natural eco-system. If you can’t deal with that fact, then, most likely, Prospect Park, or any park, is just not the place for you. Do your speed walking someplace else. Or, better yet, sit quietly, & hope to see a pair of rats running about, minding their own business, going about their lives. If you’re open minded enough, & generous of spirit enough, you will quickly discover that they’re
not the threats you want them to be.
Enough with the parental bravado. That’s more of a threat to society than any rat ever could be.
Hi,
I’m making a research for a documentary about rats. I’m italian but I’m in ny for two months (ny will be one of the locations of the doc).
is it maybe possible to meet and make interview to you? a little one, in which you could show me where you’ve seen them and what were they doing.
my english is really bad, sorry.
I’m here from one week, I dont’ alrealdy have a phone, but you contact me to skizo66@alice.it
this is the site of the doc project:
http://www.squeak.it
thank you!
hope to hear from you soon
mauro
Of course there are rats in Prospect Park, just as there are in Central Park, Wash. Square Park, Mad. Sq. Park — seriously, do you not get to the parks much?
Rats are indeed ubiquitous, but I suspect that when they become rampant, it is because people are leaving them such an absurd feast of garbage. The park garbage cans are overwhelmed early and often on weekends; more rigorous pick-up of overflowing trash cans would cut down on the food supply.
Are you both from Ohio? Yes there are rats every where in this city, there are more rats than people. This should not be breaking news to either of you. Get your head out of your ass.
I saw two rats on the path way near the North West corner of the park. I’ve also seen them on President st. Is this something that should be reported?
We just moved out of our apartment in Windsor Terrace because we caught a rat in our bedroom!! They were first in the garbage out front at night and eventually found their way in. Sickening to think what could have happened if they had gotten into the crib of our 2 month old daughter. I walked out of that apartment and will never look back.