37 rodents killed...

37 rodents killed in Acadia as rat-free status threatened

Rodent hounding neighbours and diligent city staff are being credited with curbing a massive outbreak in "rat-free Alberta."

Homeowners and bylaw officers trapped and killed 37 rats in Acadia in the last week and are on guard against more rodents that may be burrowed in back-alley garbage.

Warren Cucheran discovered the first rodent as it scurried across his front porch a week ago Sunday. The next night, Cucheran and neighbours found a nest of 24 rats in a lilac bush in one of their yards.

"We assembled a posse, if you will," said Cucheran, who along with his friends clobbered the rodents with a broom, spade and whatever other tools they had on hand.

"We just went until it was dark," he said. "We filled two bags full of rats."

Garbage collection in the neighbourhood is on hold as bylaw officers rummage through the trash to ensure rats aren't taken to the city's landfill site where they could breed.

Ald. Ric McIver, whose ward includes the southeast neighbourhood, said Calgarians are in debt to the neighbours and officers for solving the problem.

"They saved the day -- simple as that," said McIver. "I'm extremely grateful our staff jumped right on it and worked day and night."

Bill Bruce, the city's manager of animal and bylaw services, said a pair of Norway rats could produce 15,000 offspring in a year.

"That's why we're taking this so seriously," said Bruce.

There are health concerns, too. Norway rats are know to carry and transmit deadly diseases including sylvatic plague and rabies. Alberta has a stern rat-free policy enacted in 1942 to protect farmers' livelihood. It calls for the eradication or control of any pest that could infest crops, stored grain and foodstuffs.

While 50 years ago there were hundreds of reported rat infestations, today the cases in Alberta are in single digits.

Bruce said officials believe the rats were domestic -- bred for feeding snakes -- and dumped in the neighbourhood by someone. Bylaw officers are conducting an investigation.

"We don't have the perpetrator," said Bruce.

Bruce said under the Alberta Agricultural Pest Act, it is illegal to possess a rat unless it is dead and frozen. It is illegal to breed rats, with fines running as high as $5,000 or 60 days in jail.

The Norway rats had been on the loose in a back alley and several backyards since last Wednesday.

Terry Willock, spokeswoman for Alberta Agriculture, said it's illegal to sell or breed rats in the province.

Hospitals and universities can use rats for research and only with the permission of the province.

McIver said the release of rats into the neighbourhood "appears to be a deliberate, destructive act."

Cheryl Wallach, of the Calgary Humane Society, said in 14 years, she can only recall one pet rat being surrendered to the society.

Bruce said animal services was notified of the problem a week ago following a call from a resident.

"I think all of us were concerned about the problem getting bigger," said Cucheran, who found two more rats on Saturday but thinks the problem is under control.

Cucheran says he doesn't know where the rats came from, or whether anyone in the neighbourhood kept the animals. "We have absolutely no idea," he said.

Animal services set traps and poison bait in the area. The traps and bait are safe to use near children and pets.

Bruce said the Norway rats that have been caught range from 10 to 20 centimetres long and weigh about 250 grams. They are all white or white and brown.

"They're domestic. Raised in captivity and somebody dumped them there," said Bruce. "We suspect we've got them all, but we're not going to take any chances.

"No garbage will be taken out of the neighbourhood until we look at it so they don't spread to the landfill site."

Bruce said the rats were probably bred to feed boa constrictors or pythons.

Some local pet stores sell frozen rats from Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario as snake food.

Bruce said bylaw officers deal with two or three rat reports each year in Calgary. Bruce said city vets have examined the rodents and determined there's no health risk.

Alberta government officials will be conducting autopsies on the rats.

Also known as barn, brown, sewer or wharf rat, Norway rats are aggressive, active, omnivorous, adaptable and prolific animals that live with man and have accompanied him almost throughout the world, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

They have been implicated in harbouring or transmitting -- directly or indirectly -- more than 20 diseases, including the plague and rabies.

Rats infected with salmonella can contaminate foodstuffs and other animals that come in contact with their feces.

mtoneguzzi@theherald.canwest.com

Norway Rats

Description: Total length -- 13 to 18 inches (33-46 centimetres). Weight -- seven to 17 ounces (200-480 grams).

Young: After a gestation of 21 days, up to 22 pink, blind babies are born. The young are sexually mature in about three months. Females have several litters in a season.

Food: Its diet includes a wide variety of grains, insects, garbage and carrion.

Range: Unless they can find shelter in buildings or garbage dumps, they cannot survive winter temperatures of 0 degree F (-18 degrees C)

Source: Mammals of the Rocky Mountains

50 Years of Rat Tales

- Alberta's rat control zone is 30 kilometres wide and stretches 390 kilometres from the Montana border to Cold Lake.

- Seven members of the rat patrol make a total of 9,000 inspections of about 3,000 possible infestation sites every year.

- More than 90 per cent of all reported infestations are on active farms.

- There has been an average of about a dozen rat infestations a year in Alberta over the past decade, involving one to several hundred rodents.

- Alberta Agriculture receives many calls a year from people who think they've seen rats. All are investigated, but the animals often turn out to be muskrats, which have flatter, broad tails compared with the hairless whip of the Norway rat. People who report rats as big as cats are usually talking about another animal. Norway rats don't get that big.

- Except for hospitals, universities and other educational institutions, Albertans are not permitted to keep any type of Norway rats -- including white laboratory rats.

- The few rats that enter Alberta by air, rail or transport truck usually don't survive long because they end up in inhospitable warehouses or industrial areas.