Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Alberta border patrol smells a rat invasion

EDMONTON -- Alberta rat control officials are urging landowners at the province's southeastern border to contact them immediately if they see any sign of rodents in the wake of an infestation in Swift Current, Sask.

Alberta Agriculture inspector Rob Pulyk figures nature and geography are on Alberta's side to prevent an influx of the pests.

"Albertans don't take kindly to Norway rats coming in," said Pulyk, a spokesman for the province's Rat Patrol Program.

"And it's a long way to get here. They'd have to worry about coyotes, snakes, hawks and owls," he said.

Pulyk said longtime landowners at the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary know that, by law, they must kill rats or call officials to help do the dirty deed.

He noted Norway rats are able to swim up to five kilometres a day and one breeding pair can produce 15,000 offspring in three years.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 30, 2009 A4

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