Photo by Karon

Last week, D.C. and Virginia officials gathered to talk about a vital cross-border issue: rats. No, really.

Ever since Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli called into a conservative radio show a week-and-a-half ago to complain that a D.C. law would lead city officials to relocate rats to the commonwealth, we’ve entered something of a municipal Alice in Wonderland.

First, Rush Limbaugh echoed the claim to his millions of listeners, prompting them to write to the bill’s sponsor Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) to let her know what they thought. (And in colorful language, no less.) Then, a Maryland legislator decided to introduce legislation banning D.C. rats from being smuggled north. We’ve even got a D.C. rat on Twitter, and the little critter is giving interviews.

But despite being fact-checked by two publications thus far, Cuccinelli’s claims even led a Virginia congressman to set up a conference call between officials in D.C. and the commonwealth to clear up any misconceptions.

According to Pedro Ribeiro, spokesman for Mayor Vince Gray, the call “went as well as expected.” Organized by the office of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), the call included staff from Cuccinelli’s office, their D.C. counterparts, staff from Cheh’s office and officials from Gray’s policy office. The participants agreed to eventually sit down in person to discuss any existing misconceptions or concerns that may exist involving the law in question, the 2010 Wildlife Protection Act. (Though the law was passed by the council and passed congressional review last year, it remains unfunded and thus hasn’t taken effect.)

Despite the ruckus Cuccinelli has raised with his comments, though, there are still opponents of Cheh’s law that would like to see a few changes made to make it less onerous for wildlife control operators. In a statement released last week, the National Pest Management Association asked that the term “commensal rodent” be more broadly defined so that critter control specialists can keep using glue boards and snap traps on everything from squirrels and chipmunks to deer and snakes:

If the last week has proven anything, it is that there is much confusion surrounding the Wildlife Protection Act, there are more questions than answers and the law’s author, the regulating agency and the regulated community lacks a common understanding of the measure. Accordingly, the Council should revisit the law and address the “commensal rodent” and other legitimate questions such as those surrounding the disposition of captured non-commensal rodents and other wildlife, and the potential for the transport of those animals across the jurisdictional borders of Maryland and Virginia. At the very least, the District Department of the Environment needs to expedite the issuance of rulemaking defining the term “commensal rodents” in the DCMRs, so everyone has the same understanding of the law’s scope.

In a fact sheet release last week, the Humane Society of the United States dismissed Cuccinelli’s “entirely bogus concern” and said that Cheh’s law only seeks to regulate a previously unregulated industry in the District.