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A group of dog owners stand in one of the lower Manhattan alleys where they gather to let their various breeds hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
The group, known as the Ryders Alley Trencher-fed Society meet about once a week, weather-permitting, and have been doing so for about a decade.
The dogs hunt best when they work as a pack. After making a kill with a bite or a shake, the hunters trot back, rat in mouth, and allow their owners to take it from their jaws. The night's kill ends up in a trash bin.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A dog named Paco, owned by Bill Reyna of Wayne, N.J., center, and a Wire-haired Dachshund named Vina, owned by Trudy Kawami of New York, corner a rat as they and other dig owners gather to let their various breeds hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
Richard Reynolds, center, and other dog owners explain their activity to a passerby who was walking through a alley where the dog owners gathered to let their various breeds hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
Reynolds and others gather occasionally to hunt and kill rats usually found in garbage piles on side streets and alleys.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A rat is caught by a dog in a lower Manhattan alley as a group of dog owners gather with their small hunting breeds to hunt the rodents in New York, April 26, 2013.
The rodent-hunters have been scouring downtown byways for more than a decade, meeting weekly when weather allows.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A rat lays dead in a lower Manhattan alley, caught and killed by a small hunting dog as a group of dog owners gather to let their various breeds hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
An array of dead rats are displayed in a lower Manhattan alley, caught and killed by small hunting dogs as a group of dog owners gather to let their various breeds hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A Wire-haired Dachshund named Vina, owned by Trudy Kawami of New York, carries a rat after catching it in a lower Manhattan alley in New York, April 26, 2013.
The capture is part of a rat hunt a group of dog owners take part in occasionally.
Craig Ruttle/AP
Susan Friedenberg of New York takes a rat from Tanner, her Border Terrier, that caught the rodent as a group of dog owners gathered in lower Manhattan to let their various breeds hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A rat is caught by a dog in a lower Manhattan alley as a group of dog owners gather with their small hunting breeds to hunt the rodents in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A rat is circled and killed by dogs of various hunting breeds that a group of dog owners brings together in a lower Manhattan alley to occasionally hunt rats in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
A group of dog owners gather in a lower Manhattan park before a hunt for rats that takes their various breeds into alleys in New York, April 26, 2013.
Craig Ruttle/AP
Paco, a dog owned by Bill Reyna of Wayne, N.J., looks over a dead rat in a lower Manhattan alley in New York, April 26, 2013, where a group of dog owners gather occasionally to let their various breeds hunt rats.
