The Niles Police Department has actually hired a pack of 5 feral cats to combat the rodent population in the town.
Five cats called Mickey, Tom, Polo, Star and Robin, who have actually been getting food and shelter for as much as 3 years from a Niles local who delights in cats, are being formally released as rat-catchers in the location around the 7800 block of Nordica Avenue.
Police said the cats will work as natural curbs to the rats who have actually used up residence in Niles, where authorities have actually associated an uptick in the vermin population to dining establishments closing throughout the pandemic.
In March, the town board authorized a regulation to manage feeding wildlife in an effort to suppress rats.
In an email to Pioneer Press, Niles Police Sergeant Dan Borkowski said the town is basing the program on a comparable effort in Chicago.
The cats have actually already resided in the location for a long time, said local Sarwad Hakim.
Asked how the feral cat pilot program would be various from the preceding 3 years, Borkowski said the cops department would be attempting to keep the cats in a more specified area.
“Our Animal Control officer recently assisted the resident with obtaining a shelter for the cats, so our hope is the cats will remain closer to their home shelter during this pilot program,” Borkowksi composed.
Hakim said she came across the very first cat in a close-by location of the Cook County Forest Preserve. “We thought she must be hungry so we started feeding her and she settled down with us,” she said. That had to do with 3 years back.
That cat then had 4 kittens, forming the group that’s living in the Nordica Avenue location, she said. An extra 15 kittens were put at a close-by animal shelter or with good friends and next-door neighbors, she said.
Hakim said her hope is that homeowners get along to the cats and provide space: “They’re outside and they’re harmless, they just want to eat the mice and that’s it,” she said.
“They are together all the time,” she said. “They play together, they sleep together, they eat together. I pray nobody harms them. They are so innocent and adorable.”
And as insect controls, the animals appear rather reliable: “I haven’t seen any rats for a long time,” she said.
The town animal control officer has actually linked Hakim to a center to purify and sterilize the animals, cops said.
The cats will be loose for a 2 month pilot, cops said. At completion of the duration, cops said they would assess the success of the program through resident feedback and rodent problem data.
The town’s primary tool to fight rats are bait stations, Borkowski said. If the cat method works, he said the department would take a look at broadening the variety of the program and deal with an organization that supplies feral cats for vermin control functions.
