You may think you work like a dog — but these animals have you beat.
In a city as costly as the Big Apple, there's a whole menagerie of creatures who have gone to work to earn their keep, just like the two-legged beasts grinding out a living here.
DNAinfo New York has rounded up a few of them:
► Goats that do the weeding
This spring, the Prospect Park Alliance hired eight goats from upstate to devour all the invasive species such as goutweed and poison ivy in the park's Vale of Cashmere. The goats cost $15,000 to rent, and they proved to be so adept at their job that the Alliance had to lay them off temporarily in June, "due to their voracity."
Prospect Park isn't the only park employing goats this year. Brooklyn Bridge Park staff brought in four goats in June to clear growth at the Pier 3 uplands in an ecologically friendly way. The park rented their mammalian landscapers from the Long Island-based company Green Goats.
Goats have also been put to weeding work in past years in Staten Island's Fort Wadsworth and Pelham Bay Park in The Bronx.
► Border collies that keep the geese away
For the past few months, Hudson River Park has retained the services of Geese Chasers, a "professional geese clearing service" that uses border collies to scare waterfowl away from grassy areas. The sight of the dogs alone deters the geese, according to the director of the park's trust, because they resemble Arctic foxes which are the birds' only true natural predator. Geese Chasers staff bring the hounds to the park three times a day and will even paddle them out onto the river.
A border collie named Max has also been instrumental in keeping geese and their waste off Governors Island. Adopted by the island's director of park and public space Jim Reed, Max uses his sheep-herding training to circle the birds and scare them away.
► Falcons that scare off gulls and geese
For 15 years before John F. Kennedy Airport canceled their contract in 2011, falcons swooped around the complex's runways, scaring away flying prey that might otherwise get sucked into jet engines. JFK tried falconry to deter birds living in the nearby Jamaica Bay Wildlife refuge from flying over the airport fence; hiring falconers was a humane alternative to shooting seagulls and geese, a cheaper method preferred by the U.S.D.A. The raptors were laid off after a budget crisis hit the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
► Terriers that hunt rats
A group of ratters that calls itself the Ryders Alley Trencher-fed Society, or R.A.T.S., sets their ground dogs on the hunt for vermin in the alleyways of the city at night. When a hound catches a rat, Fordham graduate student and research assistant Matt Combs measures it and collects a sample for his study of the city's rodent population before throwing it in the garbage.
► Cats that keep you company
At cat cafés like Little Lions in SoHo and Meow Parlour on the Lower East Side, rescue cats earn their room and board by socializing with the humans that visit and may adopt them. Brooklyn Cat Café charges customers per 30-minute intervals. Koneko's cattery has a $15 admission fee, Little Lions an $11 fee.
► Dogs that sniff out bedbugs
The bedbug industry — employing pest-sniffing dogs like Bell Environmental's famous beagle, Roscoe — exploded in 2010, when the blood-sucking insects were invading not just homes, but schools and theaters in New York City. By then, there were 20 exterminator dogs in town.
The panic has since died down, and the dogs' accuracy has come under scrutiny, with customers claiming false positives.
► Sheep that mown the lawn
For the second year in a row, three sheep from White Farm Barn in New Paltz are maintaining the grounds at St. Patrick's Basilica graveyard in SoHo. The grazing beasts, on a 2-month gig to tend the lawn, are popular with the Mulberry Street church's congregation and neighbors, according to Pastor Donald Sakano.
