Berliner Tageblatt - Oh rats! New York seeks 'bloodthirsty' rodent czar

Mayor Eric Adams's administration on Wednesday posted the job listing for Director of Rodent Mitigation, a position that pays between $120,000 and $170,000 a year.

"Do you have what it takes to do the impossible?" asks the ad, which seeks someone with a "virulent vehemence for vermin" and a "general aura of badassery."

A bachelor's degree is a must, as is experience in urban planning, project management or government, and proficiency in spreadsheets.

But above all the successful candidate must possess "the drive, determination and killer instinct needed to fight the real enemy -- New York City's relentless rat population."

Rats are one of the more unappealing aspects of life in America's largest metropolis, often seen scurrying between subway tracks and sniffing around garbage bags.

Legend has it that there are as many rats as humans -- around nine million -- although that figure has been debunked as a myth by a local statistician.

English novelist Charles Dickens complained about the rodents when he visited New York in 1842.

And a rat shot to internet stardom in 2015 when it was filmed walking down the stairs of a subway station with a slice of pizza in its mouth.

City officials have spent millions of dollars trying to cull the rat population over the years, deploying everything from rodent birth control to vermin-proof trash cans.

During a stomach-turning presentation in 2019, Adams, then Brooklyn borough president, unveiled a machine that drowned the rats in a pool of alcohol-based liquid.

The city also runs a "Rat Academy," where local residents can learn rodent prevention methods.

The rats continue to run rampant, however.

Between January and September this year, more than 21,500 sightings were reported to the city's hotline, up from around 18,000 for the same period last year, according to local reports.

"There's NOTHING I hate more than rats," Mayor Adams tweeted Thursday, adding that for someone "your dream job awaits."

M.Furrer--BTB