Rats Threaten To Engulf Streets
Food litter dropped on the streets has led to a surge in
the UK's rat population.
August 1, 2002
An explosion in the UK's rat population has been blamed on people dropping food litter in the street.
Environmental health experts say that rats are feasting on increasing amounts of dumped leftovers, with no incentive to return to the sewers.
They have warned that it will soon be as common to see a rat on the street as a dog or a cat.
Keep Britain Tidy advert
The more you drop, the more we eat
The more we eat, the more we breed
The more we breed, the closer we get
Stop feeding a rat - use a bin
The Keep Britain Tidy group said the rat population has grown by 24% in the last two years alone.
It is now estimated to be 60 million - roughly one for each person living in the UK.
Spokesman Peter Gibson told BBC Radio 5 Live there were three reasons for the population explosion.
"The weather has been a bit milder and that can often help rats.
"Secondly there has been cutbacks in pest control expenditure.
"But third... an increase in the amount of food litter that we're dropping.
'Rodent hordes'
"People are not giving it a second thought, we're just throwing food onto the ground and this is proving to be a bit of a feast for the rats."
The group has warned that if people continue to dump take-away litter, rather than put it in bins, hordes of rodents will roam the streets.
It is launching a cinema advertising campaign to highlight the problem.
Rat facts
Mr Gibson said people often wrongly thought councils would come and clean up their litter.
And he said even biodegradable items such as apple cores can cause a problem.
"For every minute it's actually on the ground, it's there for the rats to eat - and that's what they're doing."
Mr Gibson said the fast food industry was also partly to blame, with rubbish being stacked up outside outlets.
The group is working with the government to set up a code of practice for the fast food industry.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/2164999.stm