Tree House will typically respond by releasing two or three felines into the area, where they provide an ethical and more effective form of rodent control. The shelter, which has a no-kill policy, spays and neuters these cats and seeks to find them a better situation, which includes releasing these feisty little buggers back into the wild in communities that are having rat problems.īusinesses and community members can request a Cat At Work be introduced in their area if they are experiencing a rodent problem. (Tangential but important aside: Cats are not fully domesticated! Even your very chill feline friend who sleeps in a luxurious cat bed all day and turns up their nose at the can of chicken-flavored food you opened for them because they prefer wild-caught tuna is considered to be only semi-domesticated.) Distressingly, nearly 1 million cats get euthanized each year in the U.S. Lots of feral cats are brought into shelters each year and are considered to be too wild to be adopted out as house cats. The program is relatively straightforward. Overall they've released more than 1,000 mousers as part of what they call their Cat at Work program. Tree House Humane Society, a local shelter that utilizes a socially conscious sheltering model designed to ensure the best possible outcome for animals, has been strategically releasing the cats across the community since 2012. The furry little hunters have actually been working to put a dent on the rat infestation for nearly a decade now.
According to a report from local Chicago news station WGN9, the city has released more than 1,000 feral cats to solve the problem. To deal with the problem, the rattiest city in the country (a title Chicago has held for six years running, according to Orkin) is about to get a little more catty. No, unfortunately, the city is quite literally infested with rodents.
Chicago has a rat problem, and not in the 1920s-style "gangsters during Prohibition time trying to figure out which one of their crew is working with the feds" kind of way.