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Opossums Overrun Brooklyn, Fail To Eliminate Rats
__roo writes "In a bizarre case of life imitates the Simpsons, New York City officials introduced a population of opossums into Brooklyn parks and under the boardwalk at Coney Island, apparently convinced that the opossums would eat all of the rats in the borough and then conveniently die of starvation. Several years later, the opossums have not only failed to eliminate the rat epidemic from New York City, but they have thrived, turning into a sharp-toothed, foul-odored epidemic of their own."
Based on my experience, automobiles seem to work wonders on these things. Clearly, we just need to bring in more automobiles to New York.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Just tell the hipsters in Brooklyn that it's totally ironic to wear live Opossums on their heads. Kill two birds with one stone.
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Just bring in a colony of ferocious lions to eat the possums. When the lions become a problem, bring in gorillas to fight the lions. Then in winter the cold will kill the gorillas. Problem solved!
The Opossum's most effective predator is the Reticulated Gap-Toothed Yokel.
They're not liable to freeze to death, but they'll likely get killed off by wandering into traffic while looking up at them big tall buildings.
That's a mighty nice soapbox you have there.
With a stick and some string, you'd have an even better possum trap.
Bring in alligators to eat the opossum, and then in the winter, they'll all freeze to death.
A friend keeps singing a song to her kid about an alligator going snap. I keep telling her she'll need liquid oxygen to achieve that, but I don't think she's got the message.
Badgers? Badgers? We don't need no stinkin' badgers!
I am officially gone from
HA HA!
Seriously though, no one in their right mind down here would try to destroy a rat problem with a possum problem. Matter of fact, anyone that doesn't call them 'possum' doesn't really have any experience with the nasty things
I'm with you -- what the hell were they thinking? Anyone from south of the Mason Dixon line would know damned well that turning possums loose on NYC would lead to complete chaos. The possum's preferred meal is Your Garbage, and a NYC alleyway is a possum's smorgasbord.
But I do have an alternate theory. Someone from the Big City came down South and said something stupid about the size of our "rats". Someone from the Little Southern Town said, "We call 'em 'possums', and they'd eat your so-called Noo Yawk rats for breakfast". The city slicker promptly requested a truckload be delivered, and my cousin Bubba gladly obliged... knowing exactly what lay in store for Mr. Smarty-Pants from the city.
Or it could have been an evil plot to wreak toothy, naked-tailed revenge for the wrongs inflicted upon the South during the Civil War... oh, sorry, I mean "War of Northern Aggression". YMMV.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Boy, we've come a long way from our humble beginnings on the savanna when one raccoon is scary. Maybe you could try using a human femur as a club, or even a boomstick.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Badgers? Badgers?
Mushroom! Mushroom!
Bow-ties are cool.
Maybe I have the benefit of experience, having lived in the south and all, but WHO WOULD BE SO F#$%ING STUPID AS TO USE POSSUMS FOR PEST CONTROL?
New Yorkers, apparently.
Are you asking the possum? or the person cooking it?
Snake! Snake!
Hmmmm....why not split the difference and use a .2215? Are they hard to find?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Yeah, they are pretty amazing and spunky little dogs. My Grandfather got her for me when I told him about my rat problem. He got her directly from a breeder that had come to the states from Germany and knew the proper way to raise and train them. First time we brought her home we opened up a cabinet, watched her bolt inside and come out with a dead rat less than a minute later. That dog was never happier than when she was chasing and killing vermin.
She's the only dog that I ever saw kill a skunk without getting sprayed too. Of course it rained the next day and she went outside and rolled all over the dead body. The only smell that's worse than skunk is dead skunk combined with wet dog....
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Isn't that the plot to Old Yeller?
"Excuse me, kind sir, but could you kindly tip this garbage receptacle at such an angle as to let me escape my confinement? I would be mighty grateful, if so." That would help; as would a tip of his top hat. He also wears a monocle.
Had it a couple of times, stewed and roasted. Not very good and gamy. I prefer squirrel or rabbit. But down here in NC and where a lot of my kin live in KY, you ate what was available. Least we aint like the koreans and such who eat dogs, or chinese, who eat anything that fails to get away.
Q: How do you make a dog go meow?
A: Freeze it solid and run it through a bandsaw
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
"You ever seen a NYC sewer rat, son?"
Sure, they are always on the news. It seems they congregate mainly at Wall Street and wear pin-striped suits. I agree that they are (a) scary and (b) need to be exterminated as a threat to health. /sarcasm
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I'm sure being both black and white they're actually quite understanding.