This seems a valid concern to me. I am on the edge of a city, on one side there are endless buildings, and on the other side it's a big open park with some farmland. It's still technically in the city, so there are no stray rats as the city euthanizes them frequently, and there are rats everywhere. My house is full of holes, and they have dozens of ways to come in. I see them frequently.

Of course, neighbors have started using more and more rat poison, so sometimes I do see some rats dead on the ground, rotting in the sun. And recently, I've started seeing dead raptors in the farmland close to us.

Raptors in this case are a kind of bird.