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Mexicans Offer Rewards to Rat Killers

Posted on: Monday, 18 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

MEXICO CITY - Officials in northern Mexico are offering rewards to people who kill hordes of rats that dozens of cats could not conquer. Citizens who have the stomach for it can make $.40 for each rodent they kill in Guadalupe y Calvo, Mayor Jesus Velazquez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday.

The program will start in the coming weeks and will continue until authorities can replace it with a widespread eradication plan of their own.

Velazquez announced the new approach after an army of imported cats failed to do the job in Atascaderos, an isolated farm village in the rugged Tarahumara mountains in northern Chihuahua state. Officials estimate there are about a half million rats in the region and that the rodents have begun invading houses in this town of 3,000 people.

Cats were collected from the state capital, Chihuahua city, about 300 miles north of Atascaderos, but the felines weren't the natural executioners officials thought they would be, Velazquez said.

Residents became aware of the problem about a year ago, when the rats started appearing on farms and in food warehouses.

Farmers set traps and put out poison, but the plan backfired, killing various cats and other rodent predators.

Authorities said about 800 households in Atascaderos are infested with the rats.

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