Chicago Dispatches 1,000 Feral Cats to Combat City's Rat Infestation

In Chicago, a variation on the Pied Piper method is driving rats from the Windy City.

Feral cats, some 1,000 of them, have been dispatched to deal with a very large rodent problem.

Tree House Humane Society releases the cats into Chicago streets under its Cats at Work program. The rescue captures the felines and neuters them, then releases them in rat-infested neighborhoods to battle the vermin population.

It is an environmentally friendly solution that results in rats running for the hills, put off by cat pheromones, the rescue says on its website.

The group has been releasing the cats since 2012. Community members feed and care for the felines, and offer them shelter.

“We’ve had a lot of our clients tell us that before they had cats, they would step outside their house and rats would actually run across their feet,” Sarah Liss of Tree House told WGN-TV.

The effort is welcomed by residents, Liss said. Especially since Chicago recently topped the list of pest control company Orkin's "rattiest cities" for the sixth time.

Related Stories