Rat bites dog at North End park (Boston: homes, food)

[redplum33]

Prince Street Dog Park


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1to1kDIBPK4

[bostongymjunkie]

Actually, dog bites rat first then gets bit.

[lrfox]

I'm honestly surprised it's not a more frequent occurrence. We used to go to this park quite a bit before we moved and the rats were always a topic of conversation among the dog owners. It's a pretty nice dog park otherwise (and rats are not unique to this particular park). Dogs being dogs, I'm really surprised that there aren't more incidents like this one.

[OutdoorLover]

If you can find a dog that will be aggressive with the rats but leave the other dogs alone... they developed various breeds back in the day for pest elimination, like various small terriers, dachshunds, etc. Certainly coyotes will gobble them up, but they'd get into it with the pets too...

[OutdoorLover]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_qUdwfxBVQ

[newenglandgal123]

A lot of this problem could be minimized if people would stop being such pigs and pick up their trash, dispose of their trash properly along with tidying up inside their homes (not leave foods scraps or pet food out). However, we have far too many slobs in the world so that solution, while a seemingly easy first step, is still too high a bar to reach.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_qUdwfxBVQ

A couple of rat terriers would clean it up.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYvdzh8Jnwg

[id77]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

A lot of this problem could be minimized if people would stop being such pigs and pick up their trash, dispose of their trash properly along with tidying up inside their homes (not leave foods scraps or pet food out). However, we have far too many slobs in the world so that solution, while a seemingly easy first step, is still too high a bar to reach.

One of the big contributors to the rat problem in Boston is that trash pickup is on-street with no requirement that trash be in receptacles. That means that twice a week, the streets are lined with piles of trash bags. This is compounded by the fact that the window to place trash on the street is rather long (depending on pickup, it can be over 24 hours) which is even more attractive to rodents.

With space as limited as it is, I also get why asking every resident to have a rollaway trash can is unrealistic, but there hopefully is some middle ground that can be found. Shorter pickup windows, communal bins (though those also get abused), or something that reduces the time garbage is lying out in the open.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

A couple of rat terriers would clean it up.

It'd be effective and great PR for the city to have a K9 "rat force." The issue is that the dogs would probably ingest rat poison. One of our biggest concerns was that our dog would get a rat that had consumed poison and get sick (or worse) himself. There are so many of those little poison boxes around, not to mention the privately implemented poisons in so many buildings around the city, that the dogs would be at risk.