Boston Council Hears Rat Birth Control Proposal as Alternative to Toxic Rodenticides

BOSTON -- October 7, 2024, Boston City Council hears testimony on rat birth control pilot showing up to 70 percent population decline. The Committee on City Services and Technology Innovation, chaired by Councillor Enrique J. Pepén and co-sponsored by Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, held a hearing Monday on Docket 1130, a proposal to add contraceptive bait pellets to Boston's rodent control strategy. Elena Gonzalez-White of Wisdom Good Works reported that a 13-month study on Cranston Street in Jamaica Plain covering 31 properties produced a sustained 50 to 60 percent drop in rodent population, peaking at 70 percent last August. Veterinarians and wildlife advocates testified that anticoagulant rodenticides have sent 199 raptors to city animal control since 2019, cost pet owners up to $7,000 per poisoning case, and were linked to nearly 200 human exposure cases in Massachusetts between 2021 and 2023. ISD Commissioner Tanya Del Rio confirmed the city has already phased out second-generation anticoagulants except in sewer baiting, but Assistant Commissioner John Ulrich noted 311 rodent complaints in the Jamaica Plain pilot zone nearly doubled year-over-year, and the city said contraceptive bait is not yet a formal recommendation in the Boston Rodent Action Plan.