Local authorities have been struggling to contain an infestation of rats that has since last month been plaguing villages in three rural municipalities of central Poland. Some locals have blamed a mink farm for the outbreak, though the owner denies it.
Residents have told the media that the recent mass sightings of rats – which began before Christmas over a large area south of the city of Gniezno – have left them afraid to leave the house after dark.
Some fear the transmission of disease while there are also concerns over damage to crops and harm to animals at the many farms in the area.
People are also worried about the rodents chewing through electrical wiring and damaging cars. “They like to play with things like wires and can bite through car brakes,” Leszek Dratwiak, who lives in the village of Mierzewo, told broadcaster TVN.
Many local residents believe that a mink farm in nearby Kawęczyn is to blame for the infestation. Krystian Rynarzewski, the mayor of Jarząbkowo, another of the villages affected, confirmed to news website Gazeta.pl. that “thousands of rats” can be seen around the farm.
According to residents, stocking rates on the farm have been drastically reduced in recent times, leading to diminishing food sources for the rats, who fed on scraps that fell under the minks’ cages. The rats are believed to have moved towards farms and villages in the surrounding area in search of food.
However, Rajmund Gąsiorek, the owner of the farm and one of the largest breeders of animals for fur in Poland, has refuted these claims. He claims that rats have always been and will always be present in rural areas, regardless of the operation of his mink farm.
Poland is the world’s third-largest mink fur producer, behind Denmark and China. In 2020, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party attempted to outlaw fur farming as part of a proposed animal rights law, but it was forced to back down after failing to secure enough support for the plans amid heavy industry lobbying.
Pressure has been mounting on local authorities to deal with the hordes of rats. Officials in Czerniejewo have provided some residents with rat poison and asked them to report rodent activity to municipal offices.
The village of Niechanowo has also sought to distribute rat poison to its residents, but financial troubles have so far delayed the initiative.
“In order to buy poisons or traps to catch these rats, of which there are hundreds, if not thousands, we have to find public funds,” mayor Szymon Robaszkiewicz told local news service Gniezno24.com.
Main image credit: Airwolfhound/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Anna Hackett is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a recent graduate of European Studies from Trinity College Dublin and has had previous journalistic experience with the Irish Independent News & Media group.
