https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/interactive/2023/rat-hunters-dc-dogs/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f005

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Washington has a rat problem. During the earliest months of the pandemic, the rodent population dispersed as restaurants shut down and office workers stayed home. But when people and their trash came back into the public sphere, so did the rats — with a vengeance. As of July, there had been nearly 11,000 service-request calls to the city this year regarding rat infestations, according to the D.C. Department of Health. There were approximately 13,000 calls for the entirety of 2022.

The city does not provide rat-abatement measures inside businesses or private property. But when someone reports an outdoor infestation, workers try to address it using two methods, says Gerard Brown, who oversees rodent control at D.C. Health: They will fill their burrows with carbon monoxide to suffocate them, and they will spray a poisonous tracking powder that gets on a rat’s fur and is ingested when they groom themselves.

The dogs are not a part of its rat regiment, says Brown, adding: “The department does not support, participate in or endorse the hunting and killing of rats with dogs.”

Most of the Ratscallions own terriers, a category of dogs that was historically bred to hunt small mammals. Freeman, the ringleader, is a breeder of Bedlingtons, and her dogs are immaculately groomed and have won prizes at major dog shows. She started letting them hunt rats as a test of their abilities.