New York City's secret weapon in the war on rats: Katie the dog

Katie the dog and Ms Sarah Darby entered Prospect Park in Brooklyn beneath a full hunter's moon. Ms Darby switched on Katie's red LED collar, unclipped her leash and Katie sprinted off.

- Andy Newman

Katie disappeared around a bend, and when Ms Darby caught up, Katie was circling a trash can. "Ready, Katie?" She tilted back the trash can. A plump rat darted out.

A blurred chase lasted only a second. Katie snatched the squeaking rat in her jaws, whipped her head back and forth, and snapped its neck. She dropped the limp rat, and Ms Darby used a folded paper towel to pick it up by the tail and drop it in the trash can, among banana peels and muffin liners.

It was Katie's 363rd kill of 2024. Her 364th came nine minutes later.

Katie weighs 6kg and is about four years old. She is 28 per cent Chihuahua, 16 per cent pug, 16 per cent rat terrier and 40 per cent mutt.

Ms Darby, 50, an educational consultant, adopted Katie from a shelter in Texas, near the Mexican border, in 2022. Not too long after, she said Katie displayed her interest in catching rats one day while walking her in a rodent-filled playground.

In 2023, Katie bagged 115 rats. A colour-coded Google map, titled "Katie's rats 2024", shows that about 40 per cent of the kills were in Prospect Park. The rest were on the sidewalks of the Park Slope and Gowanus neighbourhoods.