New York City Mayor Eric Adams has had enough of rats running around his city and is now looking for someone to help him fight the infestation.
New York City just announced a job opening for a “Director of Rodent Mitigation,” and the salary for the newest government employee will be a whopping $120,000 to $170,000 a year. Mayor Adams is looking for someone with a strong resentment towards vermin to take up the role of rat czar.
Mayor Adams announced the job offer on Twitter and expressed his disgust with rats. He said that the city had the perfect job for anyone who had the drive and determination to exterminate rats from the city and had the killer instincts required to fight the relentless rodents.
The job listing called for people with experience in urban planning, government work, or project management, as those qualifications would help seal the deal.
According to the advertisement, the personal attributes that the job requires would be high motivation and a bloodthirsty attitude. The candidate should use various angles to look at solutions, including collecting data, improving operational efficiency, trash management, using technology, and slaughter.
The listing, which uses somewhat comical language for a job description, insists that the candidate should have a “swashbuckling attitude,” “crafty humor,” and a “general badassery aura.” The person must also have at least a bachelor’s degree and experience. Further requirements for the job include the lucky person being an NYC resident within three months of being appointed.
The fight against rodents in New York is not new, but the rats seem to elude extinction every time.
Mayor Adams has long expressed his distaste for the rats and, in October, launched a plan to reduce the number of rats in the city.
The mayor announced that starting April 2023, the city will fine residents who put their trash on the curb before 8 pm. New Yorkers are currently allowed to begin putting garbage on the curb at 4 pm.
The city’s sanitation department reported that they received over 21,600 rat complaints by September this year, which is a 71% increase compared to last year.
When Covid-19 measures required most people to leave rubbish bags on pavements by 5 pm each day, officials blamed the pandemic on a shocking increase in rodents.
Jessica Tisch, New York Sanitation Commissioner, said she believed the new regulations would significantly reduce the number of rats in New York City, adding that the rodents do not run the city. The sanitation department will also develop new routes to make sure trash only stays on the curbs for a short time.
Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio previously launched an unsuccessful multimillion-dollar plan to deal with the rats. He introduced more trash pickups and focused on better inspections for houses in specific neighborhoods, but the rodents outsmarted him.
Recently, the number of rat sightings in the city, including parks and sidewalks, has increased. Hopefully, the new rat czar will forge a plan to deal effectively with the problem.