By Evaristo Lara
Due to the increase in rat sightings in different areas of the city of Boise, John Gannon, congressman from Idaho, introduced an unusual anti-rat bill.
Arguing that rodents have become a difficult pest to confront, the Democratic lawyer who since 2012 has represented Idaho’s 17A legislative district, is leading a project through which he wants rats to be classified as invasive species with the potential to become a public pest.
In that way, The background of their project consists of granting local governments full authority to act until solving a problem that, in addition to generating million-dollar financial losses, can affect the health of citizens.
During an interview with the news network NewsNation, The politician originally from California acknowledged that it is a priority for him to prevent the enormous population of rats reported by the public from going out of protect a watch on with the possibility of spreading to several cities in Idaho.
“We have been living here for 50 years, and this is the first time I have heard constant and frequent complaints about rats. I think it is a basic duty of the government to deal with pests like this,” he said.
It should be noted that the aforementioned bill does not impose measures or financing and only “empowers” local governments to confront the plague.
According to local authorities, the increase in Norway rats and roof rats has spread in the last five years to become a threat to the Boise area and the Treasure Valley in Idaho.
At the moment, the hardest hit areas include Eagle, Garden City, Meridian and northwest Boise.
A large sector of residents of these towns agree that rats nest in their air conditioning systems, destroy irrigation systems and cause structural damage.
“It is suspected that these rats arrived in Idaho in storage containers transporting furniture from residences in some large city on the West Coast.
“People are moving to all parts of Idaho, which means these rats can appear anywhere in the state,” said Democratic Rep. Steve Berch. of Boise and co-sponsor of the anti-rat bill, in a statement issued to the newspaper Washington Post.
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