Rats Overrunning Tompkins Square Park Because Of Protected Hawk
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- In 2010, New York Magazine named Tompkins Square Park the "best playground in the city" but now, many say the park is unusable because rats have taken over.
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Parents say the park's new $1.5 million playground is surrounded by hundreds of rat holes. They say rats even get into the children's sandbox.
City officials stopped putting down rat poison to protect a resident red-tailed hawk. Official say if the hawk eats a poisoned rat, it too will die.
The Parks Department has put out special garbage cans that prevent rats from getting inside and have covered the rat holes with woodchips.
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