An adult and juvenile rat nibble bird seed left on the ground in Confederation Park. Four of the rodents were later seen seen moving about the bushes and munching seeds alongside two black squirrels in the northwest corner of the park near the corner of Elgin and Laurier streets.
The National Capital Commission is looking into rat-catching alternatives after bait traps were removed by unknown persons from Confederation Park.
Spokesperson Jasmine Leduc says the NCC plans to meet with local residents to look into all possible solutions to the park’s rodent problem, including catch and release.
However, Leduc says that more humane measures, such as catching the rats and releasing them elsewhere are unlikely to be successful.
“These methods consist mostly of displacing the rats, which is not addressing the issue and they would have to be dealt with in another area,” she says.
Leduc says every method will be considered but if local residents ultimately agree that it’s the best solution, bait traps may return to the park.
But Paramount Pest Control president David Saunders says that bait traps were not the right action to take in the first place.
“I definitely think the poison stations were a terrible idea. I feel the rat situation in Confederation Park should’ve been done properly by a well-trained individual,” he says.
Saunders has worked in pest control for 21 years.
He explains that the difficulty with this kind of trap is that the bait always has to be fresh or the rats will look for an alternative food source.
Even when the trap is successful, and the rat does consume the poison, it can do more harm than good.
“The Norway rat won’t really try to bother people too much. But if a rat gets poisoned, it’s an animal that’s not in its right state of mind,” says Saunders.
He suggests the old-fashioned wooden snap traps as a safer alternative.
Esther Klein, spokesperson for the Animal Defence League of Canada, suggests rat-proof garbage containers and signs encouraging the public not to feed the wildlife as a way to solve the problem. Like Saunders, she is also against the poison stations.
“Poison is a terrible thing. First of all, it’s a terrible death. But it also doesn’t stop with the death of the target animals because the other animals that prey on this poisoned animal will then be poisoned,” Klein says.
She says if the NCC does decide to bring the poison stations back to the park, the ADLC would condemn the action.
Presence of the rodents has been increasing in the area for months. Leduc attributes this to an earlier and warmer spring, local construction and food left behind by the public.
“We’re asking the public to dispose of their garbage properly and also to refrain from feeding the wildlife as leftovers can attract these rodents,” she says.
“We want to ensure that this does not become a public health risk.”
The NCC is not actively investigating who removed the bait traps.