Posted on 02/07/2019 3:46:50 PM PST by EinNYC
LOS ANGELES CITY HALL is infested with rats, and officials are asking the city to remove the carpeting amid a typhus outbreak in the area.
City County President Herb Wesson submitted a motion Wednesday requesting the city conduct an investigation into the "scope of vermin and pest control issues" in City Hall and its adjoining buildings. Employees have reported seeing rats in several offices and at least two workers say they have been bitten by fleas, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Wesson is seeking an estimate of costs to remove all the carpeting from the buildings and replace it will alternative flooring.
"Employees shouldn't have to come to work worried about rodents," Wesson told the Times. "I intend to do whatever it is we need."
Workers have reportedly seen evidence of rats in multiple offices, including tiny paw prints on desks and signs that the rodents were nesting in potted plants. During a Halloween party last year, a rat chewed through a pumpkin decoration. Wesson told the Times that he moved his staff out of City Hall to a nearby building because the situation had gotten so bad.
According to the Times, a deputy city attorney contracted typhus last year and had a 102-degree fever. Elizabeth Greenwood works in City Hall East, a building connected to City Hall. Greenwood told the Times she has not returned to work since November because she is "terrified of entering the building again until they do something."
Wesson's motion includes a call for an audit of all the live plants in every city-owned and city-operated building, including the varieties that "are most attractive to vermin." Additionally, Wesson wants the city to implement a policy that requires employees to secure food in their offices and have custodial staff throw out food that is left out.
The motion follows a typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County in October during which health officials warned people to avoid wild animals, including rats. Typhus is a group of diseases spread to humans from lice and fleas, according to the CDC. Murine, or endemic, typhus the strain in Los Angeles, infects people when infected flea feces are rubbed into cuts or scrapes in skin. The CDC says it most often occurs where rats and their fleas live.
Symptoms of Murine typhus include fever, chills, body aches, vomiting, stomach pain and a rash.
3rd World problems overrun America....
Leads the nations cities in the abortion rate, as well as the smallest % of people who enlist in the Armed forces.
Absurd, Rats need access, and I would think the city would be able to continually secure the building from rats getting in, unless they come in through the doors. Plus by preventing access to food and catching and poisoning them then the population can be greatly reduced.
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