“We have a serious problem,” declares Jerry Robinson of the financially stressed Laredo health department. Officials have discussed hunting down coyotes from low-flying planes or scattering chicken heads stuffed with rabies vaccine where they roam. Rat-watchers in Alaska worry that shipborne rodents could stamp out 4 million birds-10 times the number slicked to death in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Art Sowls of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge has raised $13,000 in state and local funds to get a community-based rat-prevention program going. But there’s no money to counter a full-fledged infestation. “It could happen at any time,” Sowls warns. “If a ship were to go aground tomorrow, we’d be in bad shape.”
