Councilors propose using birth control to combat rats, rather than poison that can kill raptors, pets and even small children

The Boston City Council today agreed to look at using rodent birth-control pellets to try to control the city's burgeoning supply of rats, by building on a pilot started in Jamaica Plain last year that one councilor said had meant an 80% reduction in the gnawing, long-tailed vermin.

City Councilors Enrique Pepén (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) and Ruthzee Louijeune (at large) say current rodenticides have killed bald eagles and hawks in the Boston area, almost killed an owl and pose a menace to dogs and cats that eat rodenticide-laced rats - and possibly even to small children who might come in contact with them.

"Our families deserve a safe and effective strategy to keep wildlife away from our homes," as do pets, he said, adding it's time to end the use of today's rodenticides, which work by causing internal bleeding in not just rats but anything that might eat them or even come in contact with them.

Louijeune said a pilot program involving sugar-coated rat-specific birth control pellets left out along some blocks in Jamaica Plain's Hyde Square, including Cranston Street, meant a noticeable decrease in the number of rats as female rats consumed the pellets and stop ovulating - an 80% reduction in rat sightings in one case.

Residents along the streets worked with a group called Wisdom Good Works to set up, re-stock birth-control stations and to monitor the local rat population.

The councilors said that, in contrast to rodenticides, the birth control pellets are harmless to other species.

Louijeune, who said she's been on dozens of "rat walks" in Jamaica Plain, said the more than two dozen birth-control stations in JP had to be outfitted with special cages that would let rats in but not raccoons and squirrels, not because the substance is harmful to those animals but because they were eating so much that there wasn't enough left for the rats.

Pepén tallied some of the damage done by anticoagulant-laced rats, including the death of MK the bald eagle in Arlington and Owen the owl, saved after being found bleeding from his eyes at Faneuil Hall.

Pepén said a recent study by Tufts University's wildlife clinic found that every single red-tailed hawk tested in the Boston area had traces of the rodenticide in their systems.

City Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown), who has long called for the creation of a formal rat-czar position and the hiring of enough rodent-control workers to war on rats 24/7, said he would watch the birth-control experiments closely. He said he fears that some families with young children are now even considering just moving out of Boston because of all the rats.