Dead Rats & Dog Crap in Boerum Hill

Is it that there's more of this stuff in Boerum Hill or just that we see more emails from there? In any case, last week we dealt with the issue of people taking dumps outdoors in Boerum Hill. Today, we've got dogshit (attention Miss Heather) and dead rats. We bring you e-mail number one:

On Saturday (garbage day), during my daughter's lemonade stand, someone brought it to our attention that sales might be higher if it were not for the dead rat sticking 2/3 of the way out of a hole in a garbage can on the sidewalk a few doors away. I rang all of the buzzers of the house (on Bergen betw Nevins & Bond) to which the can belonged, but no one answered. This morning (Tuesday), the can is back on the sidewalk for garbage pick up and the rat is STILL sticking out of it!

Since the rat episode, I've begun to notice how many cans and garbage bags have these rat-sized holes with garbage sticking out. This is not a new problem, of course, and there has been much discussion of buildings and lots with very serious rat problems. I'm wondering, however, if there is something that has been done in the past to notify owners/renters that their trash is attracting rats and that they must do something about it...As of Wednesday afternoon, the garbage can is still there, with the dead rat still sticking out of it, rotting in the sun. Isn't there something we can do about it? I've walked by it twice now with my 2 kids, and it's absolutely disgusting (and probably a health hazard).

And, here is e-mail number two, about some dogshit-related issues:

Here is my experience with what happens when dog owners drop their bags or newspapers full of waste in my trash can (which happens just about twice a week, on pickup days). 1. If the garbage has not already been picked up, the sanitation folks come, take out the large bags of garbage, and leave the dog waste in the can. In the 10 years I've lived on Pacific St not once have the sanitation folks taken it out of my can, and I don't blame them. 2. I can then leave it in the bottom of my can, and repeat the cycle again, (collecting more and more of these gifts from my neighbors), or start my day by a) retrieving a smeared New York Times from the bottom of my can, getting a garbage bag from inside my house, putting it in the bag and placing the bag in the can or b) carrying someone else's dog waste to the corner trash can (which is not actually on the corner anymore but a block and a half away). I get to do one of these every Tuesday and Thursday. 3. Several times I tried leaving the lid on the can securely closed. On those occasions sanitation tried for a second or two to open the can, and being unsuccessful, just didn't pick up my garbage. Again, I don't blame them. A few extra seconds trying to get lids off cans would slow the system down, create a worse traffic back-up, etc. 4. Periodically I get tired of not owning a dog yet having to deal with dog waste, so I just put out closed trash bags, no cans. On a few occasions they have been torn apart by hungry animals (rats, I assume). One possibility for explaining this is that dog owners may not know what happens to bags of dog waste because they never drop it in their own can.

Ah, life in Brooklyn.