Dear Virginia: Be Grateful for Our Rats - Love, Washington DC
    By Hank Campbell | January 19th 2012 07:00 PM | 8 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
    A new District of Columbia (that's Washington, D.C. to those of you outside the Beltway) law is wonderfully progressive regarding the rights of rats.  Since they love to overregulate stuff, it now dictates how pest control people - exterminators - can deal with them.

    Sure, you may have believe the only rats are at Occupy DC protests in Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square but some homes get them also.  The new law stipulates that rats can't be killed and must instead be relocated.  Along with their rat families. But rats have to be sent at least 25 miles, say zoologists, or they will find their way back.

    Washington, D.C. isn't all that big and that means D.C. is exporting its rats to states, like Virginia.  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is not amused.  Not because the same law applies in Virginia - you can shoot rats with a .50 caliber magnum there if you want - but because "these varmints who, for those who don’t remember their history, carried things like bubonic plague. I mean, these are true vermin.”

    As if that's the worst thing to come out of D.C. this year.  I am just happy to be able to make fun of some place besides California for an afternoon.

    Cuccinelli Fears D.C. Rats Will Occupy Virginia - Fairfax News

    Comments

    This is a horribly unfunny attempt at an Onion-type news article. I can't believe someone got paid to write this. I just wish I could get the minute of my life it took to read it back. Ugh.

    Anonymous (not verified) | 01/20/12 | 17:22 PM
    Gerhard Adam
    What did you think was supposed to be funny about this law?
    Gerhard Adam | 01/20/12 | 18:56 PM
    Hank
    Why did they think anyone got paid?  

    The Virginia Attorney General was not entirely correct - it was some supposition, like that the rats would be sent to Virginia, and some exaggeration because that is what people do when they are trying to make a point in politics.  Is DC goofy for caving into goofy fringe kooks who want to humanely ship pests elsewhere?  Well, yeah.
    Hank Campbell | 01/20/12 | 19:34 PM
    Gerhard Adam
    Actually it isn't just goofy, it's impossible.  It will raise the costs of extermination to unbelievable levels, and simply make the problem worse. 

    I still maintain that the easiest "green" solution to the problem is for these office buildings to go to the humane society, pick up about a dozen cats, and let "nature run its course".
    Gerhard Adam | 01/20/12 | 19:49 PM
    Hank
    Maryland is also claiming they will introduce legislation to ban the rats of DC from going into their state.

    RodentGate?  The goofballs behind the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 are what make common sense people look bad.
    Hank Campbell | 01/20/12 | 20:06 PM
    Read the law. Rats are exempt from the law. Why did you leave out that CRUCIAL bit of information? Rats are exempt from the law. There is no problem exterminating rats in DC. They are exempt from the law. You can read the law, call the Mayors office, call the DC Department of Health, which I did and I even a School Board to ask their rat policy. I got the same responses - either "huh?" or rats are exempt and they exterminate them.

    So rather than actually spending 5 minutes investigating, you just ran with the story and your opinion. Not very "sciency" of you was that?

    And before you say "well field mice or rice rats"... Well field mice are in the fields and there have been no rice rats in DC in decades.

    So do what a scientist does. Make a hypothesis. "DC is exporting rats to VA". Then do some research. Oh, the law says rats are exempt. The law also only applies to commercial pest control companies, so "DC" is not exporting rats.

    So what does "science' say about your hypothesis?

    Anonymous (not verified) | 01/24/12 | 06:46 AM
    I wonder how they arrived at the decision that a law needs to be created so that "rats can't be killed". I understand that we maybe need to consider 'humanely' killing rats as we humanely kill cows and chickens for food. But not killing them at all? How would you then control the rat population and prevent the spread of diseases?

    Mark Pest (not verified) | 02/12/12 | 01:28 AM
    Gerhard Adam
    As with so much coming out of politics, this is also largely bullshit.  Since I also failed to read it initially, I thought I'd add some documentation to try and help clear things up.

    http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2711881

    5.  “Wildlife” shall include any free-roaming wild animal, but shall not include:
    (A) Domestic animals;
    (B) Commensal rodents;
    (C) Invertebrates; and
    (D) Fish.
    http://cnsnews.com/sites/default/files/documents/Wildlife%20Protection%20Act%20of%202010.pdf

    The word commensal is used to describe rodents that are generally found living in close associations with humans and very often dependent upon human habitat for the essential elements of food, water, shelter and space.
    http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/publications/yavcobulletins/Commensal%20Rodents.pdf
    Gerhard Adam | 02/12/12 | 01:58 AM

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