ANIMAL » RATS

Here’s a Video of Rats Having a Tug of War Over a Bagel

Bucky Turco — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:00:33 +0000

An epic battle between two rats fighting over a bagel was caught on video at the 14 Street A-train station, but as you’ll see, a super heavyweight contender spoiled the final round. (Video: dannyrockett/YouTube)

Rats Intercepting Holiday Packages

Bucky Turco — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:22:03 +0000

When several employees at the New York Times received “holiday goodies” in packages that looked like they had been tampered with, the paper did some investigating and found out they had… by rodents. A post office employee who worked at the facility where the parcels were sorted admitted they have a rat problem, especially during the holidays. Nasty! (Photo: Richard Perry/New York Times)

MTA’s Ingenious Plan To Rid Subway of Rats, Will Likely Attract More

Bucky Turco — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:37:55 +0000

The MTA has a huge problem on its hands. Because the transit agency spends money like a crack-whore, mostly to cover its immense debt habit, they won’t hire enough workers to timely cart away all the trash, which according to the Daily News tops over 8,500 bags a day. This leads to huge pileups of garbage and that attracts rats.

So, their new plan, as part of a pilot program, is to remove the trash cans from platforms altogether. But what’s that going to solve?

The people who ride the subway and reflexively litter will continue to just toss their shit on the ground or in the tracks, while the more well-mannered won’t have a place to throw anything out.

Rats Inflicting “Biological Terrorism” On NYC’s Subway System

Bucky Turco — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:11:59 +0000

That was the message delivered to the MTA on Wednesday by the vice president of the Transport Workers Union. “People have a right not to be terrorized by biological terrorism, and that’s what these rats are,” said Maurice Jenkins, about the increasing threat the disease-carrying rodents are creating in the subways.

Transit workers have launched a very public campaign and are asking the public to sign an online petition—via a website featuring an illustration of a nightmarish rat—demanding that the MTA take steps to curb this problem. If that doesn’t work, perhaps they should just play this video on loop:

Giant Rat Speared By Pitchfork In Marcy Projects

Myles Tanzer — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:10:08 +0000

A group of giant rats has invaded Marcy Projects and one man is fighting back. A Housing Authority worker named Jose Rivera speared one of rodents with a pitchfork this week, which makes him the ghetto warrior of the year. The rats are about three feet long and have supposedly lived there for six years. The New York Daily News interviewed a woman who said that the rat pack tends to “get together and gang up on the cats.” This is the stuff nightmares are made of.

White Rat of Tompkins Square Park Spotted

Bucky Turco — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:38:33 +0000

A mysterious white rat that has been frolicking about in Tompkins Square Park made its first daytime appearance yesterday and we thought you should know. Maybe this guy’s missing one?

Rat Bites Down in NYC?

Marina Galperina — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:00:04 +0000

Here’s some statistical perspective for all those nauseating subway rat encounter videos: 100 New Yorkers get bit by rats a year on average, but only 29 bites were reported so far this year, according to NYC’s Health Department. Are we getting less delicious?

Rodent exterminators suggest that the rats will “gnaw on a human by accident” trying to get at their food, “for the most part.” So, unless they’re munching away on a greasy meal, subway commuters’ chances of not getting snacked on by furry trash guzzlers are better than last year’s.

Wheh. Now there’re just those illustrious subway fights, jingoist bros, crazy hijackers and dying people to watch out for.

Ubiquitous Subway Rat Sagas Continue

Bucky Turco — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:30:55 +0000

While waiting for the F train at the Herald Square Station last night, a regulation-sized rat-bastard started scurrying around the platform, mostly to the amusement of those it briefly encountered. Watch it play.

This latest rat-spotting comes on the heels of Manhattan Borough president Scott Stringer’s claim that rodents are destroying NYC’s tourism industry and that it might not have been a good idea for officials to exterminate over 50 pest control positions from the Department of Health because of budget cuts, to which we’d have to agree.

In the meantime: rats! Lots and lots and lots of em.

Subway-Riding Rats No Longer Rare

Bucky Turco — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:31:59 +0000

Historically, rats have always been a fixture of the city’s transit system, but they were mostly confined to socially acceptable places like anywhere out of sight or on the tracks below.

Nowadays it seems like the rodents are just running amuck and NYC the Blog, has once again uncovered the latest video of a plump rat running through an A train to the dismay of just about everybody.

Subway Rat Weakness Discovered

Bucky Turco — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:56:56 +0000

Acting on a tip from what sounds like the cameraman and his buddy, a cop drives out a subway rat from its hiding spot on the Metropolitan Av-Grand St platform with a whistle in this YouTube video. After getting caught in a brief pickle with bystanders determined to get a photo of it, the rodent scampers away back to where it belongs… out of sight!