Rats plague Canadian islanders

STAG HARBOUR, Newfoundland, July 28 (UPI) -- Rats as big as a 2-liter soda bottle, attracted by garbage, have the Canadian residents of a Newfoundland island community saying enough is enough.

About 20 people from Stag Harbour on Fogo Island manned a picket line Monday, stopping anyone from dropping off more garbage at an open dump, the Canadian Broadcast Corp. reported. By midday, however, only one truck had approached the dump site and its driver retreated.

The CBC reported the protesters had stories about the rodents scurrying around their backyards and basements, and digging through garbage.

"There was a rodent in the trap in the basement the size of a 2-liter Coke bottle," town resident Stephanie Miller had told CBC News last week.

Regional authorities were to have burned the garbage at the dump to control the rat problem, but called off that idea because the estimated $70,000 cost was too high.