They aren’t as cute as in “Ratatouille.”
A video of a trash bin full of rats has disgusted the residents of Paris, as the City of Light’s garbage men complain of attacks from rodents in the shadows.
An unidentified sanitation worker told Le Parisien that he and his colleagues discovered the “enormous” vermin during their morning duties last month in central Paris, near the banks of the Seine and the Musee d’Orsay.
Other rats are reportedly more aggressive.
Five dead as gunmen attack Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul
A video of rats inside a garbage bin has disgusted Parisians.
(Le Parisien cia YouTube)“A colleague told me that a rat jumped at his throat and another at his arm,” a man identified as David told the newspaper.
He added that part of the increase in the city’s rodent residents likely stems from restaurants improper disposal of their trash, meaning that some of the are fattening themselves on leftover foie gras from distinguished chefs.
Flooding in the French capital is also thought to have forced more rats up to the surface.
The video was taken near the Musee d' Orsay, which was hit with flooding last year.
(Jerome Delay/AP)Mao Peninou, a deputy mayor for Paris, said that the city had set out 1.5 million euros ($1.8 million) last year to help combat the problem, with efforts including rat-proof garbage bins.
New York City’s rats are more famous for stealing pizza than starring as cooks in Disney movies, and City Hall launched new $32 million initiative to combat rats last year.
One program from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene uses a compound called ContraPest in an effort to sterilize female rats, who are able to give birth to thousands of babies each year.
Mayor de Blasio has particularly targeted “rat reservoirs” with high concentrations of the animals.