- Title: FRANCE: CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT MILLIONS OF RATS IN PARIS
- Date: 6th September 1975
- Summary: 1. CVs & SVs Market place and stalls (4 shot) 0.16 2. SVs & CUs Piles of rubbish and waste ( 3 shots) 0.26 3. SV Cleaners sweeping streets 0.30 4. CU Worker laying poison in piles around room 0.40 5. CU Drain pipes inside house (2 shots) 0.54 6. CU Rats trapped in cage 1.01 7. GV Health department officials come and collect
- Embargoed: 21st September 1975 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA2XGE4C20H85FEGSWPTDU9L1B0
- Story Text: Paris, the French capital, houses between four and five million rats... virtually one for very Parisian.
According to latest estimates released by the Prefecture de Police, the rate devour 200 tonnes of food and damage a further 4000 tonnes daily.
Each year the section of the Police Department dealing with hygiene receives thousands of requests to help exterminates the rodents. They issue frequent warning about taking precautions against attracting rats.
One of the worst hit areas are the many market places scattered throughout Paris, Discarded food, left after the stalls have been packed away, are a big draw for the hungry rodents.
Other trouble spots are the thousands of multi-storey tenements which are often over a hundred years old.
Caretakers are warned to report sightings of rate to avoid the situation reaching plague proportions.
SYNOPSIS: The market places of Paris ... a paradise for the millions of rats that plague the French capital. It has been estimated there are between four and five million rats in the city ... about one for every Parisian.
It is rubbish piles like these which attract the hungry rodents in their thousands. A section of the Police Department ... which handles the extermination of rats ... issues constant warnings to the people to clean up the city and fight what could result in a plague. The main deterrent is poison and this is laid in large quantities in infested areas.
Paris is particularly difficult area to police when it comes to rodents. There are thousand of multi-storey tenements ... often more than s hundred years old.
The rat catchers have their work cut out for them. Each year there are thousands of calls for help. When the situation of calls for help. When the situation is particularly bad, the Police and Health Departments hold a general operation for extermination concentrated over a short period of time.
The rats threaten health, bringing with them dirt and disease. They are also destructive. Estimates say they devour two hundred tonnes of food a day. In addition to that, they damage another four thousand tonnes daily, making it inedible. The cost of the food and the measures taken to wipe out the rodents comes to millions of dollars a year.
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