Neighborhood News: A Rat Hunter Takes Bushwick

A vintage way to tackle a newly pressing problem.

- Colin Schappi

ON A COLD MORNING in December, Elias Schewel enters a community garden in Bushwick followed by his two small dogs, Sundrop and Moonbeam. The dogs tremble with anticipation but not for a game of fetch. They are here to hunt.

Schewel bends down to unleash them, and they dart off, weaving around sheds and bushes, using their diminutive size to their advantage in the search for their quarry: the New York City rat.