Rats, a group that has been hunting rats with dogs in New York since 1995, is summoned to infested neighborhoods
at a press conference a couple of years ago, where Adams’ team said they had placed five of the buckets around his Brooklyn office building.
Undeterred, the pair rock it again. Bingo. A rat bolts out of the hole, runs straight through the group of waiting dogs, and makes good its escape under a nearby car. “They nest up in the engine,” Jason Riviera, an electrician from Queens said. The rats can chew wires under the hood of the car, damaging various components. AccordingReynolds’ and Hoffman’s rocking continues. Another rat bolts out and is snaffled by Hoffman’s Patterdale terrier, Mighty.
“It helps me keep myself composed,” Reyes begins to tell me, but he never finishes the thought because Bustelo has grabbed another dumpster rat, and needs a lot of cajoling to let it go. “Anyone who witnesses this cruelty should alert authorities immediately, as it’s a violation of New York’s anti-cruelty law, which applies as much to smaller mammals who feel pain and fear as to larger ones such as dogs.”
The dogs get a good reception, too. Everyone we came across was supportive, and Rats has even been honored from on high. In 2017 New York City councilman Eric Ulrich12 Rats dogs with “Vigilante Awards” after the group successfully hunted rats in his Queens district.