The Vigilante Group Of New Yorkers Who Hunt Rats At Night
This is the weirdest urban sport in all of NYC.
Morgan Spurlock turns Robert Sullivan's book, Rats, into documentary
Something about this irks me a bit. Morgan Spurlock, who you may remember as the guy who ate nothing but McDonald's for a very long time, has turned the amazing Robert Sullivan book, Rats, into a horrifying documentary.
The problem I have with this documentary is that it plays into the whole rats-are-gross sentimentality that Sullivan tries so hard to dispel in his book. In Rats (the book), the rodent is seen as a curious accident, boarding ships and bringing disease to North America and also helping to shape the very nature of New York City. It doesn't vilify the rodent but rather aims to make us view the rat as an agent of change for the city. Sure, it's still gross, but that's not really what the book was about. It seems though, that that's the point of view that the documentary takes.
I'm still interested in watching this documentary, but I just hope it's more than just rats are gross and rats are bad. You can buy the movie on Amazon right now.
Exploring Chinatown's Columbus Park with a rodentologist
It's Monday morning and I know the first thing you want to see as your scarf down your breakfast is a ton of rats. So here you go! RATS GALORE!
Watch this video of a group of rat-hunting dogs in NYC
A group of dogs (and their owners) known as R.A.T.S. are taking it upon themselves to hunt down and kill rats in NYC. The group unleashes their trained dogs on these rodents on NYC streets and the dogs then capture and kill the rats as some sort of urban sport.
It's a little odd I guess but it gets the job done. A part of me does worry about diseases being transferred from the rats to the dogs (aren't rats known to be carriers of some of the deadliest diseases in human history?). Anyway, as nasty as this is, I think I'd love to watch a night of this. Looks interesting...