Our nation's capital of rats?

By Kathy Megyeri,
Washington

While sitting in the small park at the corner of Columbia Road and 16th Street NW in the middle of the day, I saw rats the size of house cats frolicking under park benches and ducking in and out of holes in the ground under bushes and shrubs. Granted, one woman was throwing part of her lunch onto the grass nearby, supposedly to feed the squirrels. But the bold rats were enticed out of the greenery to devour the food and munch happily in the shade. I am tempted to buy rat poison and pour it down the huge holes under the foliage, but surely this health hazard could be dealt with by the D.C. Parks and Recreation Commission or the Summer Youth Employment Program.

Such a scene is hardly appealing to visitors and D.C. residents, and it surely promotes disease and more breeding of vermin. It’s a problem that should not be ignored.