Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo intends to establish a commission to examine if residents of the French capital might learn to cohabit peacefully with rats rather than try to eradicate the vermin, as per a city official.

At a meeting of the Council of Paris, Anne Souyris, Paris’ deputy mayor for public health, said, “With guidance from the mayor, we have decided to form a committee on the question of cohabitation.” 

The recently established regulation marks a substantial change from earlier initiatives taken in Paris to deal with the estimated six million rats living there. The 2017 anti-rat strategy for the capital invested $1.8 million of its resources on a number of anti-rodent measures, including the installation of airtight garbage cans and the widespread application of rat poison at thousands of locations around the city.

The recent strikes in Paris are said to have made the rat crisis worse. More than 10,000 tons of garbage have piled up in the streets of the French capital of Paris amid a sanitation workers' strike in protest of the controversial pension reform in March.

Since rats still outnumber people in Paris by a factor of about 3:1, new measures are being considered. According to Souyris, the committee will determine "the most efficient" way for people to coexist with rats in Paris that is "not unbearable" for those who live in the city.

Some animal rights organizations are more receptive to the new suggestions. Paris Animal Zoopolis criticized the "cruel and ineffective" nature of earlier management approaches.

Vermin and Paris have a troubled history together. The bubonic plague, which killed half of the city's inhabitants in the 14th century, was mostly carried by rats. However, during the Franco-Prussian War's 1870–1871 Siege of Paris, the animals also assisted the populace in avoiding hunger.

Paris is not the only city striving to come up with fresh solutions for persistent issues like rat infestations. In order to address its own rodent issues, New York named its own "rat czar" in April. In contrast, Toulouse, France, has used ferrets to assist manage the rat population.