Let Them Catch Rats

Who knew that Berlin was full of bums and rats? According to the politicians in Germany it is, but they have a plan to get rid of both. They are going to pay the bums One Euro each for every dead rat they can turn in. That way the bums can become self sufficient while doing German society a service by ridding the city of rats. What could possibly go wrong?

From Spiegel here:

A Berlin politician has come under fire for suggesting that poor people should be encouraged to catch rats by offering them €1 per dead rodent. The intriguing idea entails some gnawing practical problems and has been called “inhuman and cynical”.

Picture the scene — hundreds of poor people armed with clubs chasing rats through the streets of Berlin.

“Especially people who usually collect bottles could get one euro for every dead rat,” Henner Schmidt, head of the business-friendly Free Democrat party.

The idea poses some practical problems too. Killing rats by hitting them with shovels or kicking them to death would break animal protection laws. Besides, rats are fast and much tougher to catch than returnable bottles, much sought after by poor people who retrieve deposits on them at supermarkets.

There’s no doubt that something needs to be done, though. Years of digging and construction in and around Berlin has prompted the many displaced rodents to roam the city. Alexanderplatz square is a favored location for them because people drop plentiful supplies of food there when they feed pigeons.

In Berlin tonight there are bums catching rats and trying to get them to breed.  In a week there will be several rat farms in every back alley in Berlin.  In 60 days the city will be swarming in rats and somehow, the bums will still be bums.