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Title:
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Resolution authorizing the Mayor, the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Environmental Services to reinstate a city rodent control program in coordination with the Allegheny County Health Department.
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Presenter
Presented by Mr. Ravenstahl
Title
Resolution authorizing the Mayor, the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Environmental Services to reinstate a city rodent control program in coordination with the Allegheny County Health Department.
Body
WHEREAS, it is estimated that the United States has some 100,000,000 rats. Rats cause enormous economic loss, consuming or contaminating vast quantities of food and destroy property when they cause fires by gnawing the insulation from electric wires. Each rat damages between $1 and $10 worth of food and other materials per year, and contaminates 5 to 10 times more. Thus, rats may cost the United States between $500 Million and $1 Billion annually in terms of direct economic losses; and,
WHEREAS, Rats and mice are responsible for spread of diseases, either directly, as by contamination of human food or indirectly, by way of rodent fleas and mites. Diseases spread by rats include rat-bite fever, leptospi rosis salmonellosis, trichinosis, murine typhus fever plague, rickettsialpox, lymphocytic choriomeningitis; and,
WHEREAS, in any urban center, controlling rat populations is a matter of public health and is widely recognized as a municipal service function. To rely upon citizen action in controlling the rat populations is ineffective at best and potentially dangerous at worst due to inappropriate applications of poisons that pose a threat to protected wildlife and domesticated pets. Controlling rat populations, not individual rats, is the key to a successful rodent-control program in a community; and,
WHEREAS, the Allegheny County Department of Health (ACHD) requires municipal employees to be a certified municipal pest control operator (PCO) in order to place bait or use pesticide. The ACHD offers the required training program and provides annual continuing training needed to keep the certification up to date. Furthermore, the ACHD provides technical assistance in identification of food and shelter sources when municipalities encounter persistent rodent populations. The ACHD works with municipalities to develop a comprehensive plan of attack, including code enforcement, baiting and education and, provides bait to certified municipal PCOs at no charge; and,
WHEREAS, The City of Pittsburgh has, due to severe financial constraints, eliminated its Rodent Control program in order to adhere to the Act 47 Coordinator's Recovery Plan.
Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Pittsburgh as follows:
Section 1 Intent
It is the intent of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh to reinstate a city rodent control program in order to protect the public's health and welfare and do so within the restrictions of the fiscal restraints placed upon the city by its financial recovery plan.
Section 2 Authorization
The Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh is hereby authorized by the Council to take the following measures in order to reinstate a municipal rodent control program:
Take the appropriate administrative actions to allow for animal control officers to perform rodent control duties.
Act to have animal control officers appropriately trained and certified by the ACHD as certified municipal pest control operators (PCO) in order to place bait and/or use pesticides.
Develop the appropriate protocols, in cooperation with the ACHD, within the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Environmental Services to effectively manage and affect a rodent control program within the Bureau's Animal Control section.
Pursuant to the ACHD's rodent control policies, the city shall take full advantage of the technical support and supplies of pesticides offered to all municipalities in Allegheny County.