Rats plague Canadian islanders

Published: July 28, 2008 at 3:34 PM

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.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
Lewis resignation caught board off guard (19 min)
Study: Africa's Congo Basis once treeless (35 min)
U.S. markets mixed Thursday morning (52 min)
Kim wins $1 million at Kiwi Challenge (55 min)
EU warns more countries on rising debt
Northwestern Univ. doctor to make history
NASA prepares for Atlantis liftoff
fark
Evidently unable to afford a trailer home, man arrested for operating a mobile meth lab on his moped...
Photoshop what this newlywedded Farker and his wife should be holding
"Brain-delving boffins in key monkey-butler breakthrough"
Royal Air Force display team announces its first female pilot. For safety's sake, she will be surrounded...
After putting out an arrest warrant on Spider-Man for hitting a guy, police find that they have...
Welfare recipient and sometime model caught with four pounds of coke in her Benz. She is a naughty...