WASHINGTON — On just about every Saturday night, D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood is a hotspot for nightlife. People pack in lines outside bars and clubs on 18th Street.
But in an alley off the main drag, there is a quite different infestation that comes out at night: Rats.
“Find the rat , find the rat,” Bomani Mtume called out to his Westie Terrier, Barto.
Mtume spends his Saturday nights hunting rats in Adams Morgan.
“You’re never more than 30 feet away from a rat in this city,” he said staring down the 18th Street alley.
He might be onto something. According to the D.C. Department of Health, in 2022, there were more than 13,000 calls for rat infestations in the District. This year, the city has exceeded 7,000 calls.
It's part of the reason Mtume and several other dog owners have become the rat hunters of Adams Morgan. Every weekend his dog Barto is joined by Fitz, a jagdterrier, and Henry, a greyhound. Together they stalk the rats around Adams Morgan.
“We have more of a problem working together than the dogs do,” Mtume smiled.
A few months ago, Mtume and the other handlers were hunting rats in Georgetown. But when that group folded, he said D.C. rodent control told them to look at Adams Morgan. Mtume said the businesses and leaders there welcomed the group.
One Saturday night, WUSA9 followed along to see how the dogs work. The handlers have created a simple hunting style that gets all three dogs to work together.
“There’s push dogs, there’s catch dogs and there’s lurchers,” Mtume explained. “The lurchers are like the outfielders nothing gets past them.”
The dogs searched dumpsters, trash cans, and even rat traps for the scent of vermin. When they find a rat, one dog pushes the rat toward the other. If that dog misses, the lurcher is there to catch the rat. In about two seconds, the dog has snapped the rat’s neck and killed it.
It’s not always that simple, though. Some rats flee as soon as the dogs get within a few yards of their hiding spot.
“When we first started hunting here, the rats didn’t even run. They had never seen the dogs before,” Mtume said. “But after that first weekend, now they know the dogs are after them.”
As the dogs go down the first alley off 18th Street, the first few rats elude them. Mtume explained it takes Barto a few attempts to get in the swing of hunting. This hasn’t always been his life.
When Mtume got Barto in 2022, the dog was just a house pet. Then he saw Barto chasing squirrels in the backyard and wondered if his terrier might like hunting rats.
“The first time he went hunting, he loved it,” Mtume said. “Now If I don’t take him hunting once a week, I can’t live with him!”
The dogs sweep out across 18th Street to side alleys off the side streets. As they cross the main drag. onlookers start to cheer. Some people said "Thank you!" to the dogs. Others just screamed, "We love you!"
The dogs are pretty popular.
By our count, after an hour and a half, the dogs killed at least 16 rats. If you have read this far, you have probably wondered at least once: Is this safe for dogs?
Mtume has heard this question dozens of times.
“We’re not putting our dogs in danger,” he sighed. “Rats don’t carry rabies, so we don’t worry about that.”
Which leads to the follow up question, is this humane for rats?
“It takes these dogs less than 10 seconds to shake and kill a rat,” he asserted. “Poison can take up to six days and the rats bleed internally. That can be painful.”
House pets by day and hunters by night, the Rat Hunting Crew of Adams Morgan will continue to try to bring the rat population down, one alley at a time.
The Humane Rescue Alliance of DC sent us this statement about the dog hunters:
"Killing rodents this way is extremely inhumane. It is also an ineffective means of management for an entrenched rodent population. HRA’s Blue Collar Cat program is a much more sustainable, humane and common-sense alternative. Our program ‘employs’ outdoor cats who have always lived outside, and who are not candidates for traditional adoptive homes. These cats are helping with rodent management throughout the DMV; their mere presence keeps rodents away from populated areas. Through this program’s collaboration with local businesses and homeowners, we were able to save more than 400 cats and allow them to live the outdoor life they are accustomed to – at the same time, they mitigate the presence of rodents."