{"id":90215,"date":"2020-03-19T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T17:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=90215"},"modified":"2020-05-15T20:33:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T01:33:34","slug":"2020-the-year-of-the-rat-chicagos-animal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/2020-the-year-of-the-rat-chicagos-animal\/","title":{"rendered":"2020: The Year of the Rat &#8211; Chicago&#8217;s Animal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jenny Ly<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">As Chinese New Year celebrations have long come and gone earlier this year, 2020 marks the Year of the Rat.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"2020: The Year of the Rat - Chicago&#039;s Animal\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/417305312?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While the rat is a sign of wealth in the Chinese zodiac, it is quite the opposite for the city of Chicago. For the city, this rodent poses major problems.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago still ranks #1 as the rattiest city in the America, according to a 2018 survey conducted by Renthop. Last year alone, there were over 40,000 rat complaints filed, and the number keeps increasing.<\/p>\n<p>Pest control companies like Men in Black Pest Control Services help tackle the growing rat problem around the Chicagoland area.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Chicago a lot of financial problems,&#8221; said Andrew Callaghan, Commercial Operations Manager at Men in Black Pest Control Services.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have watched rodent programs put out by the city of Chicago not being afforded. The teams have dropped down so there is no real way to keep up with a landmass this big even in just Chicago proper. We have watched the rat problem skyrocket all over the city.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: A sign posted in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago warning residents of rats. (Jenny Ly\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jenny Ly Medill Reports As Chinese New Year celebrations have long come and gone earlier this year, 2020 marks the Year of the Rat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":670,"featured_media":90220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2020"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>2020: The Year of the Rat - Chicago&#039;s Animal - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/2020-the-year-of-the-rat-chicagos-animal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2020: The Year of the Rat - 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