Should Chicago Sterilize Its Rat Population?

Chicago is full of rats. No, we're not talking about snitches and whistleblowers who help bring down thugs and put our governors and government workers in jail.

With warmer weather on the horizon, one Chicago alderman is afraid the city will see an explosion in the rat population, and he's hoping to stop it before it starts.

Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) is suggesting sterilizing female rats, with liquid rodent sterilization bait "ContraPest." The concoction contains an industrial chemical called 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) which accelerates egg loss in female rats and can cause infertility within days of ingestion.

“I was going down Lake Street in the 1500 block and saw a whole crew of them scurrying into buildings. I saw them on the West Side yesterday doing my drive-around. I was up in the Gold Coast area and saw them. When you have that number of sightings in a limited period of time, we’ve got a problem,” Ald. Bob Fioretti said in the Sun-Times Wednesday.

It's been implemented elsewhere: in New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tried it out last year with SenesTech, the Arizona-based company that invented ContraPest. The MTA reportedly saw a 43 percent decline in the rat population, specifically in Grand Central Station’s trash room.

Female rats can birth up to 12 pups per litter, with as many as seven litters a year. Chicago's rat population takes the spot of the fourth-worst in the world, in an Animal Planet survey.

"The rat problem in our city is out of control," Fioretti said. "They carry diseases that negatively impact our communities. ... This is a quality-of-life issue that we should be dealing with more effectively in our city."

The City already uses geo-tracked coyotes to help cull the rat population. Those coyotes you see trotting around your neighborhood? Guess what they eat for lunch.

Should Chicago utilize liquid sterilization to combat a possible surge in the scurrying kind?

Tell us in the comments.