FIELD OF SCREAMS
Shock video shows park crawling with rats feasting on food left for pigeons by locals
SHOCKING video shows a city centre park crawling with rats feasting on food left for pigeons by locals.
A passerby captured the disgusting infestation in a Bradford park - in broad daylight.
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The brazen creatures appear to have taken over the green space, as shown in worrying footage captured by Sajid Mahmood.
He says on the video that he was "just driving past" when he saw the rats scurrying about in the park.
Filming the rodents scampering freely through the grass and over a concrete slab, a disgusted Mahmood adds: "This is what I've just seen.
"People throwing food out, thinking they are feeding the birds.
"Unfortunately as you can see it's attracting the rats and they are all over."
He told that he counted more than 15 rodents in Infirmary Field.
Mahmood added: "It was still light at about half eight and I saw them from the road.
"Probably more than 15 of them, coming and going, popping up from the concrete slab in the middle.
"They were getting food the people thought they had thrown for pigeons. They looked like they were really enjoying themselves."
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Cath Bacon, a community activist of Bradford, shared the horrifying footage on Facebook.
She warned: "Next time you’re thinking of taking your food waste to the park to leave out for the birds, watch this and remember - you’re NOT feeding the birds!
"You’re feeding the rats and helping them breed.
";Don’t dump food waste! Tie it up securely and put it in the bin.
"Please share to spread awareness."
A spokesman for Bradford Council said: “If residents have concerns about rats they can report them to the council either online or by telephone.
“We would strongly advise people not to scatter food for birds as it also attracts vermin to the location.”
The authority's website says that those "worried about pests or vermin on public land or outside a neighbouring property" should contact the council for help.
It adds: "When a property has a lot of food waste, faecal material, soiled clothing or furniture or is infested with vermin (including rats, mice, insects or parasites including their eggs, larvae and pupae) it may be termed 'filthy and/or verminous'."
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According to pest controllers Rentokil, "rats and mice have adapted well to the human environment and the benefits it offers to them for food and shelter.
"They have become serious pests in all phases of food supply and to human health due to these close encounters with the food we eat and the places we live and work.
"Rodents carry a wide range of disease-causing organisms, including many species of bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminths (worms).
"They also act as vectors or reservoirs for many diseases via their ectoparasites such as fleas, ticks, lice and mites, as well as some diseases carried by mosquitoes."
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The warning comes days after the Sun reported on monster rats crawling into homes through toilets after the winter Covid lockdown shut restaurants.
Terrified Brits have been spotting rodents a foot-and-a-half long as the hungry pests head inside looking for food.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
And Mancunians living in Dukinfield complained their homes were overrun by the creatures.
One said the pests are so big they "almost ate her chihuahua".
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