Bowden, Alberta, reported a dead rat on Thursday and asked the province’s Rat Patrol to investigate; officials did not say where it was found. The town urged residents to report signs. Alberta says “rat-free” means no resident rat population, not that rats never appear.
Alberta established its Rat Control Program in 1950 and later created a 600-by-30-km (373-by-18-mile) monitoring zone from Cold Lake to the Montana border. From June 1952 to July 1953, 140,000 lb of powder containing 73% arsenic trioxide was used to treat 8,000 buildings on 2,700 farms.
Alberta cites mountain ranges and boreal forest around much of the province, and says Norway rats cannot survive in vast natural areas or overwinter in cultivated fields. Rat Patrol Alberta receives hundreds of calls annually, but says most reports involve muskrats, voles or field mice.
