If you thought London or Paris had a particularly bad rat problem, you’re going to completely lose it when you find out the measures New York City (NYC) has recently taken to try and curb its rodent issue. Evidently fed up with having to compete with the entire cast of Ratatouille, the NYC council recently signed off on a scheme to distribute contraceptive pellets across the city in hopes of curbing rat reproduction.

According to The Independent, the pellets, called ContraPest, have a sweet taste that is attractive to rats, and target ovarian functions in females and sperm production in males. Council member Shaun Abreu, who introduced the legislation in April 2024, stated: “The war on rats predates us and will probably outlast us if we keep trying the same methods that haven’t been working.”

Due to start within the next few months, the programme will be monitored for a year and the results will then be presented to Mayor Eric Adams—if he’s not in prison by that point, of course… New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Sanitation and rat experts are planning to establish two pilot programme areas of around ten blocks. The zones, which may be set up in Manhattan, the Bronx, or Brooklyn, include mostly residential buildings required to set out waste in containers.

Quite rightly, the conversation regarding rat birth control has prompted a pretty wild question from netizens online: do rats now have greater access to birth control than women? Well, in many ways, yes.

As pointed out in an article from BuzzFeed, while the US Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover approved forms of contraception for free, many newer contraceptives aren’t on that list. Moreover, let’s remember the fact that we still have to pay for the morning after pill. Reproductive healthcare is being targeted and erased in states across the US—particularly with respect to abortion support—so it’s understandable that this rat scheme has got people up in arms.

New York City is planning on providing birth control for the overpopulation of rats in the city, which means it’s easier to get reproductive rights as a rodent in New York than it is for a woman to get reproductive rights in most of the country.

— Jared Wilder (@SomethinWilder) September 30, 2024

https://twitter.com/SylnaZhinka/status/1841466723754479683

no not rats having better access to reproductive healthcare than most women https://t.co/3NB2iJ1mZt

— em (@emilyagain) September 30, 2024

There’s also the fact that this birth control scheme will target both female and male rats. As we all know, there is still not any available male contraception on the market—a constant daily reminder for many of us that men, once again, hold zero responsibility for their actions.

so glad to hear science has finally figured out how to make male birth control💜 https://t.co/IuAdr2WLZE

— h💜 (@piscesmoonsong) October 1, 2024

There is progress in this sector. In December 2023, it was reported that a group of British men would be the first in the world to trial a new hormone-free male contraceptive pill. While this is definitely a move in the right direction, it is also a bit of a kick in the teeth to read the words “hormone-free” when so many women have been combating the symptoms and side effects of hormone-full contraception for the past 100 years.

Either way, this rodent birth control scheme is a nice little reminder that even if there are people across the entire country feeling the daily effects of Republican-led reproductive restrictions, at least there won’t be as many rat babies running around!