Kaylee Byers, who recently presented at an urban rat summit in NYC, says mental health of those exposed is as serious a problem as disease
After the COVID years, with its theories about a zoonotic source for the novel coronavirus as humans were exposed to bats or pangolins, just about everyone is familiar with the concept.
These days, Byers looks at rat management more from a “social justice” perspective. That’s because close contact with the pests tends to be more pervasive among the unhoused and precariously housed in low-income areas like the Downtown Eastside.
The study found rates of depression were significantly higher, and participants spoke of living in constant fear of rats. It was one of several factors, in the participants’ eyes, that showed a lack of concern for the welfare of the vulnerable and disadvantaged in the city.
Last week, Byers attended the first national urban rat summit hosted by New York City Mayor Eric Adams — in part because NYC is the de facto North American capital for rats and their related health and safety risks.
Byers, an associate professor in Simon Fraser University’s faculty of health sciences, was among several Canadian presenters in New York, including rat project founder Chelsea Himsworth. The Vancouver Rat Project is a joint research project between SFU and the University of B.C. started around 2010 by UBC’s Himsworth; Byers joined a few years later.
But even after many years of research, Byers said we still don’t have a lot of solid data on rat populations. “We don’t really have a good sense of where rats are in our cities.”
It’s fair to say, though, they’re pretty much everywhere. All they need, noted Byers, is a food source, a place to burrow and access to water. There’s plenty of all that in the DTES, not to mention Gastown, Granville Island and many other Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods.
But our data on infestations only comes from sources such as calls to Vancouver’s 311 help line and pest control professionals. That barely scratches the surface of the problem because many don’t bother with either, choosing to try to deal with the rats on their own.
So the summit was aimed at learning, said Byers, “What do we know? What is the scope of this issue? And can we think more creatively about managing rats in our cities?”
Leptosporosis remains a problem. In fact, Byers said it’s probably the most widespread zoonotic disease worldwide, and 24 human cases were reported in New York last year. But illnesses from rats are probably under-reported because we rarely test for the pathogen and the bacterial infection usually presents like a common flu.
Byers admits studying rats isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. “Most people don’t like rats. The big thing is that we associate them with disease, which is fair. But they’re interesting creatures, really charismatic animals,” said Byers.
“They’re dirty and filthy because that’s the (human-created) environment they live in.”
But managing them remains important, especially in a city like Vancouver that aims to be one of the world’s greenest cities. “That green-ness can support rats and other wildlife,” said Byers. So we have to be thoughtful about designing public spaces and sewer infrastructure, housing, backyards and alleys, and even construction sites that can disrupt resident rat populations.
“What was clear is that we really need to be thinking about all of these aspects when we create our management programs,” said Byers. It’s also important to develop types of enforcement that compel people to keep the rats around them at bay.
So what led to Byers’s fascination with the widely reviled pest? Maybe it’s a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, she suggested.
“I’m originally from Alberta, the rat-free province.”