If they did it in NYC, they would serve another purpose, they wouldn’t survive, because they would serve as breakfast for the native sewer rats, which are the size of German Shepherds.
This woman’s supposed “altruism” towards rats is deeply misguided, since rats in captivity generally live to be two or three years old, while those in the wild are lucky to reach six months due to disease, parasites, injury, predation, and a lifestyle that generally sucks. It’s like pumping out human children specifically raised to be homeless transients.