It’s about to be hunting season in West Somerville – for rats.
An order for pest control company sharpshooters to kill rats with air rifles was sent to committee Thursday by the City Council, proposed by Ward 7 city councilor Emily Hardt as a follow-up to a ban on poisons that might travel up the food chain and kill animals other than rats: If one method of control is taken away, another must take its place.
“This is something that’s used widely in Europe, where rodenticides have been much more restricted than here,” and the air rifles have been used elsewhere in the state over the past two and a half years, Hardt said. “They have specialized equipment. They’re highly, highly accurate.”
A team with air rifles will check in with police, set up in the night at a specific property at residents’ request, establish a perimeter of cones and banners to warn humans away, turns on their thermal or night-vision scopes and settle in to shoot, Hardt said. Secured Environments Pest and Wildlife Services, a Pembroke company with offices in Cambridge, sends out two to three sharpshooters at a time for three to four hours a night, usually for one to two nights. The company operates also in Rhode Island.
Hardt, an animal lover who co-sponsored a citywide ban on retail sales of pets, said she asked a vice president at Secured Environmental – who takes parts in the shoots – whether its work was cruel. “I’m convinced this is more humane that the anticoagulant rodenticides,” she said of the hunts. “It’s precise – 95 percent of the time [death from the air-rifle shots are] instant, whereas anticoagulant rodenticides are a slow and painful death” with risk to other animals that eat rats, such as raptors.
The council is involved because there’s a general prohibition on discharging firearms in the city; councilors must allow use of firearms.
Councilors on Thursday approved the Legislative Matters Committee conversation; a majority seemed ready to approve the one-time exception immediately – if only because the idea seemed slightly zany.
“This is wonderful, and I was wondering if the good councilor from Ward 7 had considered perhaps the establishment of a hunting season,” perhaps the rat high season of Aug. 15 through Nov. 15, councilor JT Scott said.
“I just want to sign on because it’s an interesting ordinance,” council vice president Will Mbah said.
A sign of caution and support for a committee hearing came from councilor Jesse Clingan. “I’ve been shot with an air rifle and I’ve shot other people – they’re not deadly to humans,” Clingan said. “But I still want to make sure how our police feel about this. I also don’t want to hold it up if the folks are eager.”
Police are aware of the plan and aboard, said Hardt and city policy analyst Brandan Salisbury.
“The residents are very eager,” Hardt said. “They have they have tried so many methods of rodent control, and they’re quite frustrated with their situation.”
