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The rest of the world is frequently surprised to discover that in humanity’s centuries-long battle with the rat, there has been only one indisputable victor: The four million people of the Canadian province of Alberta.

“Norway rats are one of the most destructive creatures known to man,” reads the official Alberta government write-up on its world-renowned rat control program. “The people of Alberta are extremely fortunate not to have rats in the province.”

For nearly 70 years, Alberta has successfully kept rats from taking hold of an area larger than France — and it has done so by waging a vigilant and all-out war on the rodent.

Photo by Alberta Archives

“Because rat invasion is threatening Alberta, we need to be properly organized and know what to do, in order to fight the battle successfully,” reads a 1954 government booklet, Rat Control in Alberta, that was distributed with virtual ubiquity in the province’s public places.

Photo by Rat Control in Alberta

The booklet is eerily reminiscent of atomic civil defence guides published in the same era, and warned Albertans that if they failed to stop the rat, they faced an imminent future of destroyed crops, ruined pantries and even the bubonic plague.

“No person should spare any effort to kill every Norway rat he sees,” it adds.

Alberta was one of the last corners of North America to face the arrival of brown rats. The rodents had first set foot on the continent’s east coast around the time of the American Revolution, and had gradually been gnawing their way into the North American ever since.