WEST END’S PLAGUE OF RATS

Evening Star, Issue 20255, 16 August 1929, Page 5

WEST END’S PLAGUE OF RATS

DISTURBED BY PULLING DOWN OF BUILDINGS Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats. —Robert Browning; All dogs with any sporting instinct who live in the neighbourhood of Leicester square wore having the time or their lives a few weeks ago. Householders and the renters of business premises were complaining of the sudden appearance of hordes of rats, some of them great, husky fellows, who are intrepid enough to put up a good fight with the sturdiest terrier. The caretaker of some residential chambers just off the square told a ‘ .Daily Express’ representative that his small dog had killed nine rats in three days. ! ‘We have never had them before,” he said; “in fact, the houses here have been remarkably free from that sort of thing, and our cat kills a mouse about once in a blue moon. A STRONG FIGHT. “ The rats my dog has caught in the past few days have been some of the biggest I have ever seen, and one fellow ' put up such a strong fight when cornered that I thought the dog was going to get hurt.’! In some houses (says the writer) the rats are doing an appreciable amount of damage. Wainscoting is _ being gnawed through, and the ‘’Daily Express’ representative was shown one corner where nearly a square foot of wallpaper had been torn off. Rats have invaded the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, and, although these animals are frequently found in the basements of most theatres, they do not appear in sufficient numbers to cause any serious concern. DUE TO BUILDING SCHEMES. The cause of this invasion is said to be the rebuilding that is going on in the neighbourhood^ The pulling down, of the old Empire Theatre disturbed a number of rat colonies-, and these, it is suggested, migrated to the south side of the square. Now, however, the house-breakers have been at work on that side, and the tearing down of some old buildings between St. Martin’s street and Whitcombe street to make way for the new theatre which is being built for Mr Buchanan has still further upset the domestic arrangements of rat land. The indignant animals arc accordingly splitting up and scattering themselves in' buildings to which they can gain entrance. So far dogs, poison, and traps are dealing fairly effectually with the nuisance, and, although the municipal authorities are keeping a watchful eye on things, it has not yet been necessary for the Mayor and Corporation of Westminster to meet in solemn conclave and emulate the authorities of the town of Hamelin by offering a reward "to any one who should rid them of the plague. \