Maryland delegate moves to ban rat trafficking, 'protect our borders'

A Republican delegate in Maryland plans to introduce legislation to protect Maryland's borders not from undocumented workers, but from rodents.

Del. Pat McDonough, R-Baltimore, will at an afternoon news conference roll out his Rat Trafficking Act, which would bar the D.C. government “and any other entity from trafficking rats and other vermin into Maryland.”

McDonough’s move will come after a flurry of attacks against the District's Wildlife Protection Act of 2010, which mandates that animal control companies use humane methods when handling animals. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli set off the firestorm when he publicly worried that the law would lead to a mass relocation by exterminators of D.C. rats into his state.

The law, though, exempts most rodents from its purview and allows companies to pursue four options with animals they've trapped, including relocation — but only with the property owner's permission — and euthanasia.

In an advisory announcing his plans, McDonough slammed the Wildlife Protection Act.

“This insane law obviously places Maryland and Virginia at risk for an invasion of out-of-state rodents,” the release said. “We must protect our borders.”

Even a temporary flow of rats into Maryland, McDonough warned, could have enduring consequences. 

“The rats multiply at astronomical rates and the rodents who have crossed the border into Maryland must be made illegal because they can produce large numbers of anchor babies,” McDonough’s release said.