My_Name_ISNULL

My_Name_ISNULL t1_izyeakd wrote

Ah, more than 1, my mistake. Thanks for the link.

Beyond that, I think it's 2 separate things, health and property concerns. Property damage I'll definitely give you, and the estimate could be much lower than actual damage, but I'm trying to focus on the health side as most of the time we see anything on here about rats it's framed in matters of health. And my point is that if you look into it the concern is a bit overblown.

Looking into lepto, 2021 shows around 13 [human] cases, 2020 had around 5. Thinking about that in reference to nyc pop of around 8.5 million, that's a 0.000153 and 0.000059 %. These numbers are so low they aren't even rounding errors. Although to be fair, the increase between 20/21 could be a matter of concern.

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/han/advisory/2021/leptospirosis-cases-increase.pdf

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My_Name_ISNULL t1_izy9sau wrote

You're saying it can, while ignoring the fact that it doesnt. Otherwise we'd see case numbers representing such, which we dont - "In New York State, there have been five identified cases of hantavirus since 1993" with an additional 1 case, bringing total to 6 as per 2020.
https://www.health.ny.gov/press/releases/2018/2018-06-22_suspected_hantavirus.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/surveillance/index.html

The dog thing sucked, but if I recall that was just from 1 main dog run in williamsburg, hardly a health emergency. And i say this as a dog owner. Property damage is beyond my original statement; it's not a public health issue.

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My_Name_ISNULL t1_izxifnw wrote

So, just to play devils advocate, what exactly is the problem with rats? Yes, i know they are around, that's a pain, but what health issue do they really cause?

Leptospirosis? Rarely found in nyc. Hantavirus? Also rarely found here. LCMV, Tularemia? Nope, nope. Salmonella? Okay, fine, semi-common, but not from the rats. I'm open to research saying otherwise, but I don't see rats as that huge of a health concern.

At any rate, beyond that, sounds like you have more an issue with people feeding cats in your area than anything else, and this whole rat thing is just your way of round-about bitching about them.

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My_Name_ISNULL t1_itmqubi wrote

Careful what you write in this thread.

Last time something like this came up in this sub I wrote a comment about how as a whole their community really doesn't care about anyone else; to be fair, it was harsher sounding that this.

Got an admin message warning me -

>from reddit[A] sent 11 days ago

>We've been alerted to activity on your account(s) that is considered breaking Reddit’s rules.

>We’ve been alerted that you’ve violated Reddit’s rule against promoting hate in the following content. link

>Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging, not for attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people. We don’t tolerate promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability, and any communities or people that encourage or incite violence or hate towards marginalized or vulnerable groups will be banned.

>Please familiarize yourself with Reddit’s Content Policy to make sure you understand the rules for participating on Reddit.

>This is an automated message; responses will not be received by Reddit admins.

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My_Name_ISNULL t1_isz6l54 wrote

Sucks, but you should be happy as this sounds pretty harmless. Bad things happening is and always has been a crap shoot, a matter of chance.

Look at all the countless times you've walked safely, how often you rolled that die and won. Instead of focusing on that you're focusing on the single time that die came up against you, choosing to live in that fear, and telling others to do the same.

To each their own, do whatever makes you happy and isn't hurting others, but I would never want to live in that illogical fear. It's only the illusion of safety anyway. Even barring actions from others, random chance can end your life at any moment no matter how much you avoid risk.

As the saying goes, the thing about life is none of us make it out alive

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