Bordeaux. despite their spread, the municipality considers rats “essential” and their elimination “counterproductive”

Le Figaro Bordeaux

In a video published on TikTok on November 11, a resident of Bordeaux immortalizes a terrible scene in his city. At midnight, Leupold Street is besieged by dozens of rats. A stone’s throw from the Place de la Bourse, this stretch is filled with many restaurant bins, much to the delight of rodents. But faced with this urban scourge, not all elected officials agree on the way forward. The environmental municipality especially emphasizes the usefulness of rats in the city.

“It’s a topic that’s coming up now, but it’s not particularly present“, – Jean-Baptiste Toni, responsible for cleanliness, evaluates. According to this elected representative of civil society, it is impossible to know “Is Bordeaux dirtier or not?“because the city doesn’t have it yet”objective datarequest. therefore it is “not being able to tell if there are more or fewer rats than before“. According to Dératiseur Bordeaux, there are approximately half a million rats living in the city’s basements, or about two rats per inhabitant.

This lack of scientific literature for the opposition politician Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, city councilor of the Bordeaux Ensemble group.allows the mayor to justify his inaction in this matter“. Nikola Pereira, who was elected in the opposition during the last city council testified.many returning from downtown merchants“marking a”increased presence of rats“. Spotting it himself in a grocery store on the Cours Victor Hugo, he highlights the health risks because “at night, rats can go to the vegetable stalls”, making them unfit for consumption without identification of that degradation.

“Destroying them will be counterproductive”

For Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, the current problem of rat management is due among elected officials.passionate animal welfare advocates“, for which the breeding of rats “problem“. Same story for elected opposition leader Nicolas Florian, who says that Bordeaux “much dirtier than before“and”elected officials are so protective of the animal cause that they do nothing to eradicate the rat population“.

Jean-Baptiste Toni emphasizes that “rats are indispensable in cities“, and that without them, “drains will clog almost instantly“. According to him, “extermination of rats would be counterproductive to urban sanitation“because it can cause”further health problems“. However, he admits rodents are a problem when they come to the surface.

To reduce the presence of rats on the streets, an elected official proposes a simple solution: deny them access to food. “To do this, you need to properly manage waste, and in particular bio-waste.“. Jean-Baptiste for Tony.if we stop putting our garbage bags on the ground in the street, we will have less rats“. Believing the community can’tsolve all problems alone”, so he urges individuals to be more vigilant and respectful.

The topic “deserves serious consideration”

The city councilor, however, recognizes that certain factors, such as works, can lead to an increase in rats, and that a number of neighborhoods, in Saint-Michel, the hypercentre or even the Bastide, have more.sanitary difficulties“. Illegal dumping, which is attacked by the district administrations, will also be the main responsible for the proliferation of rats.

Jean-Baptiste Toni also testifies to the testimony of Bordelais’s wife, who no longer dared to open the trash cans in her room infested with rats and therefore put her waste directly on the ground. “It is not the city’s job to go and clean the garbage dumps of the buildings.– recalls Jean-Baptiste Toni. According to him, the destruction services are not enough.unless we have good management of our waste“.

However, for Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, the topic of rats should not simply be left in the hands of the people of Bordeaux. This problem”deserves serious and urgent treatment“. The elected representative proposes generalization of hermetically sealed garbage cans, collection of garbage in the evening and not in the morning, as well as a daily fight against rodent breeding areas, and not “simple sets of coagulant baits to which rats have become resistant“.