PARIS, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- An animal rights group has launched a campaign in dozens of metro stations here, urging people to refrain from the "massacre" of rats amid the city's ongoing anti-rat movement.
The campaign, launched by Paris Animaux Zoopolis that aims to defend all animals regardless of human preferences, showed pictures of cute rats on their posters that read rats "are sensitive individuals" that can "feel emotions."
It urged the city to refrain from its ongoing fight against rats which authorities say is aimed at improving public health.
"Rats should not be seen as synonymous with filth," Philippe Reigne, the group's co-founder, said, adding that rats in fact help reduce rubbish by eating some seven kilos of rubbish over their lifespan, according to The Telegraph.
Paris is estimated to have a rat population of around 4 million, which easily outnumbers its human population. Rats can be seen scurrying through streets, parks, metro stations and other places especially when flooding occurs or major infrastructure works force them out of their usual haunts. Footage of rats infesting the city and scaring people is not unusual on social media.
Authorities have long been fighting back against rats via various means, such as laying traps and poison and blocking off sewer entrances. In late 2016, multiple parks were even closed off to better wipe out rampaging rats.
In January, authorities introduced a 1.7 million-euro (1.96 million U.S.-dollar) anti-rat plan to combat the proliferation of rats. Earlier, it presented the results of the plan, saying 4,950 anti-rat operations had been conducted as of July and 200 parks and 600 buildings had been treated against rats.
