How many cats does it take to save one Mexican village from a plague of rats? Around 700, believe authorities in the state of Chihuahua, where a feline army is being recruited to battle hundreds of thousands of the rodents in a mountain village. The residents used to use their own cars for pest control but the introduction of poison and traps has killed all the rats' natural predators, even the coyotes, rather than the rats.
Adverts asking for cat donations began circulating this week in Chihuahua newspapers, and there is hope a contingent of 200 will be ready to travel this weekend. Local health officials have compared it to the Pied Piper of Hamelin (minus a piper) but animal welfare have questioned the wisdom of replacing a plague of rats with what could become a plague of unsterilised moggies. If cat control was ever needed, the state's namesake dogs would hardly be up to the task.
