Eric Adams announces the first National Urban Summit on Rats: 'The best way to defeat your enemy is to know them'

New York is summoning rat experts to the National Urban Summit on Rats on Sept. 18 and 19. It is the first in the country's history, according to Mayor Eric Adams.

The Democrat assures that the meeting will be a new advance in the so-called "War on Rats." Adams said in a post on X: "The best way to defeat your enemy is to know them," words that seem to echo those of Chinese strategist Sun Tzu: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

"New Yorkers may not know this about me — but I hate rats, and I’m confident most of our city’s residents do as well," the mayor said when announcing the measure. The idea, as he explained, is to bring together experts from all over the country, such as academic researchers and municipal pest control officials.

Kathleen Corradi, the city's first citywide director of rodent mitigation, also known as the "rat czar," said she was "proud" to host the meeting. "Despite being our closest urban counterparts, there is surprisingly limited research on urban rats and their management," she explained.

This latest initiative joins a barrage of measures by the city to combat the rat infestation that places it among the top three cities with the most rats in the nation, according to Orkin's ranking. The very creation of Corradi's position was one of these policies, which generated controversy due to her salary of $155,000 a year.

The rat infestation has long affected New York, sometimes producing episodes that attract the attention of the international press or that go viral on social media, such as the "donut rat."