NEW YORK — Late on a Friday night, eight dog enthusiasts and their pet pooches prowl several dark alleys in New York’s Lower East Side with one mission: to hunt and kill as many rats as possible.
The dogs, mostly terriers, pant and strain at their leashes before diving into trash bags and emerging seconds later with a convulsing rodent between their teeth.
“They’re bred for the job. They’re wired for the job. They live for the job,” explained Richard Reynolds, organizer of the Ryders Alley Trencher-fed Society, or R.A.T.S. for short.
New York’s furry rodents are notorious. Legend has it there are as many rats in the city as humans (some eight million), with public-health o…
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