Le Figaro Bordeaux
In a video posted on TikTok on November 11, a Bordeaux resident immortalizes a horror scene in his city.
In the middle of the night, Leupold Street is besieged by dozens of rats.
A stone's throw from the Place de la Bourse, this passage is cluttered with many restaurant bins, to the delight of rodents.
But faced with this urban scourge, elected officials do not all agree on the way forward.
The environmental municipality highlights in particular the usefulness of rats in the city.
“
It is a subject that is currently emerging, but which is not particularly present
”, estimates Jean-Baptiste Thony, municipal councilor responsible for cleanliness.
According to this elected representative of civil society, it is not possible to know "
if Bordeaux is dirtier or not
", because the city does not yet have "
objective data
" in the matter.
He is therefore "
not able to say if there are more or fewer rats than before
".
According to the Dératiseur Bordeaux company, approximately half a million rats live in the city's basements, or about two rats per inhabitant.
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For opposition politician Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, municipal councilor of the Bordeaux Ensemble group, this lack of scientific literature "
allows the mayor to justify his inaction in this area
".
During the last city council, the elected opposition representative Nicolas Perreira testified to "
numerous returns from traders in the city center
", noting an "
increasing presence of rats
".
Having himself observed it in a food store in the Cours Victor Hugo, he underlines the health risks, because "
at night the rats can go to the vegetable stalls
", making them unfit for consumption, without this degradation being identifiable. .
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“Exterminating them would be counterproductive”
For Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, the current problem of rat management is due to the presence among elected officials
of “ardent defenders of animal welfare
”, for whom the proliferation of rats is not a “
problem
”.
Same story for the elected opposition Nicolas Florian, who says that Bordeaux "
is much dirtier than before
" and that "
the elected officials are so committed to the defense of the animal cause that they do nothing to eradicate the proliferation of rats
.
Jean-Baptiste Thony emphasizes that “
rats are essential in cities
”, and that without them, “
the sewers would clog almost instantly
”.
According to him, "
exterminating the rats would be counter-productive for sanitation in the city
", because it could cause "
sanitary difficulties later
".
However, he acknowledges that rodents are a problem when they come to the surface.
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The elected official puts forward a simple solution to reduce the presence of rats in the streets: prevent them from accessing food.
“
To do this, waste must be managed properly, and bio-waste in particular
.”
For Jean-Baptiste Thony, "
if we stop putting our garbage bag on the ground in the street, we will have fewer rats
".
Believing that the community cannot "
solve all the problems alone
", he therefore encourages individuals to be more vigilant and respectful.
The subject “deserves serious treatment”
The municipal councilor recognizes, however, that certain factors, such as the works, can lead to an increased presence of rats and that several districts, in Saint-Michel, in the hypercentre or even at the Bastide, have more "
difficulties of health
".
The illegal dumping, which the district town halls are attacking, would also be the main responsible for the proliferation of rats.
Jean-Baptiste Thony also evokes the testimony of a Bordeaux woman who no longer dared to open the bins in the room of her building, infested by rats, and therefore deposited her waste directly on the ground.
"
It's not up to the city to go and clean up the garbage cans in buildings
," recalls Jean-Baptiste Thony.
According to him, the rat extermination services would not be enough, "
as long as we do not have a good management of our waste
".
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However, for Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, the subject of rats should not simply be left in the hands of the inhabitants of Bordeaux.
This problem “
deserves serious and urgent treatment
”.
The elected official proposes the generalization of airtight bins, the collection of waste in the evening and not in the morning, as well as a daily fight against rodent breeding areas, and not “
simple poses of coagulant baits to which rats have become resisters
”.
