Chicago the new 'Rat Capital' of the US

New York with its Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio used to be the rat capital of the country but now that honor goes to Chicago, with its Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel as rat complaints have spiked and squeaked past those of the Big [Juicy] Apple.

According to apartment search service RentHop, Chicago had the highest number of rat-related complaints of the four major U.S. cities, beating out New York by a lot more than a whisker.

RentHop compiled the data indicating over 50,000 rat-related complaints were filed last year, a 55 percent increase since 2014.

"The abundance of garbage and buildings in The Windy City makes it a great location for these rats to seek shelter and food for survival," RentHop reported. "The presence of these furry critters poses a threat to city dwellers due to the fact that they are capable of spreading diseases and cause allergic reactions to humans and animals."

The worst neighborhoods were Logan Square, West Ridge and Englewood.

"Most of the neighborhoods with a higher concentration of rat complaints coincide with the neighborhoods with a higher concentration of dog poop," the website wrote, leaving out whether the poop is food for the rats, or people who don't pick up after their dogs attract rats.

The other cities RentHop compared in the study were New York, Washington D.C. [with a larger variety of rat], and Boston.

The Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation told the Chicago Tribune that they received 42,670 requests for rodent control from residents in 2017, but Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama were not among them. The agency explained the lower number from that reported by the website was due to duplicate complaints.

One courageous rat, [obviously a socialist] broke into an ATM machine in India and chewed away at the bills, destroying 1.3 million rupees, or $18,500. Apparently those critters will eat anything.

In the spirit of a feces cone disguised to look like a chocolate delight, Sanitation Spokeswoman Marjani Williams told The Tribune "(Streets and Sanitation) encourages residents to report rodent activity to 311 so that our crews can quickly investigate and address every sighting."

Apparently, there are as many addresses in Chicago as there are rodent sitings.

She added that the agency conducts preventative baiting and there's a program to place dry ice into rodent burrows in parks and other areas to suffocate rats.

It seems as if the government pilot program isn't working.

Please consider subscribing to Brain Flushings and visit my sponsors on this page. Thank you.

Tweet

Para-Rats at Chipotle

Poor Chipotle restaurants just can't catch a break.

The fast-food casual restaurant chain has had its collective hands full of problems like the E. coli outbreak in November 2015 or the norovirus-like symptoms customers experienced at one of the Virginia locations earlier this week.

Now in Dallas, one patron said that was raining rats from the ceiling of its downtown location. A Facebook video that has since been deleted (but can be seen on Twitter for your viewing displeasure) shows two unnamed mice scurrying on the floor of a Chipotle location in Dallas, allegedly after falling from the ceiling.

The Facebook caption was posted by user Bahadir Han Koseli who wrote: "Rats fell from the ceiling at Chipotle in the West End."

Needless to say, Koseli got a myriad of "Likes" on his FB page.

The one that made it

Koseli said the incident "brought a quick end to lunch" and claimed the management "didn't do anything while we were there but apologize."

Sure, they should have beaten the rats with fajita frying pans and brooms until they were little bloody pools of death while customers sat around and watched the show. 

I don't think so.

Chipotle acknowledged the rat problem and outlined, to Fox News, measures it's taking to fix it.

But the real clincher for Chipotle wasn't the rat problem and the falling from the ceiling. No, the real problem for the restaurant chain is that PETA is suing them for not providing the rats with a safe, soft surface on which to land.

In addition, PETA claims that several of the rats were injured from the fall which would have never happened if Chipotle had a reinforced ceiling that didn't use acoustic tiling, which can easily break by the weight of those poor, misunderstood creatures of God.

Tweet