The enormous rat population in Paris, according to a city official, is the target of discrimination, and the animal needs a new name to stop people from murdering it.
Douchka Markovic, co-president of the animal rights-supporting Animalist Party and a supporter of the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, recently claimed during a council meeting that the name “rat” incites violence.
As she rebuffed the inquiries of center-right councillor Paul Hatte on the need for expanded pest control and eradication measures, Markovic responded, “I like to call them surmulots (which loosely translates as “oversized field mouse”).
Paris was ranked as the fourth-most rat-infested city in the world earlier this year by the French rating site Topito, and the incredible number of rodents is giving the city’s tourist officials a bad image.
Meanwhile, the National Academy of Medicine of France stated that the increasing rat population poses a “danger to human health due to the multiple illnesses they transmit through parasites, faeces, bites and scratches.”
However, Markovic, who is in charge of regulating animal welfare in the 18th arrondissement of the French capital, claimed that rats have evolved into a natural cleaner of the city’s sewers, are essential in aiding in the removal of trash, and must be kept in moral, non-lethal manners.
‘[They are] our waste control assistants. We must firstly note the role played by the animals on a daily basis in the sewers, with the evacuation of several hundred tons of waste and the unblocking of pipes,’ the councillor insisted.
It comes as mayor Hidalgo faces staunch opposition for what many believe is her culpability in the decline of France’s largest city amid social media campaigns drawing attention to the increase in rubbish and violence on the streets.
In the meeting and on social media, individuals laughed at Markovic’s protest and made fun of it in a number of other ways.
The movie Ratatouille will be renamed Surmulotatouille, one person said in a remark. Others submitted pictures of tigers with the description, “This is an enormous cat.”
In 2017, the mayor of Paris declared a budget of €1.5 million per year for upgrading garbage collection services and deploying “smart” bins, which compress trash and are automatically closed to keep rats out. This was the beginning of an effort to stem the city’s soaring rat population.
But a study in 2019 revealed there are now almost twice as many rats in Paris as there are people, and a combination of Covid lockdowns and building projects driving the rats out of their more suburban and rural homes have encouraged the rodents onto the city’s streets.
As her city gears up to host the 2024 Olympics, mayor Hidalgo has come under fire for continuing with ambitious infrastructure initiatives at the expense of much-needed garbage collection services and angry city employees.
Before the Games arrive in the capital in two years, the socialist mayor has vowed to clean up the city.
However, a social media campaign earlier this year brought attention to the problems in Hidalgo when irate Parisians flooded Twitter and Instagram with pictures of trash-covered streets and overflowing trash cans.
The images, accompanied by the hashtag #SaccageParis (Pillage of Paris) brought into stark contrast the decline of what was once one of Europe’s most sought-after destinations.