The crusading animal activists of PETA are blaming the city’s rampant rat explosion on “disgusting human behavior” — insisting thinning the herd shouldn’t include rodents’ “gruesome, painful” deaths.

The group’s concerns about rat control included a call to Mayor Eric Adams’ office last week.

“I don’t think any of us want to see the city filled with rats the way it is right now and that includes PETA and other people who care about animals,” the group’s communications director Ashley Byrne told The Post on Thursday.

“The rats you see on the streets are still sensitive, intelligent animals and they deserve better than to be killed in gruesome, painful ways,” she asserted.

Byrne, a 13-year Brooklyn resident, argued residents only have themselves to blame for the rat proliferation, noting they shouldn’t be referred to as “pests” because “they’re animals here through no fault of their own.”

“As long as the garbage is there and unchecked the rats will be there,” Byrne said, noting that cutting off the rats’ food source is most critical. “We have a disgusting human behavior problem, not a rat problem.”

She believes “it’s much easier for the city to demonize rats in this cartoonish manner than it is to tell New Yorkers to get their act together and stop treating the city like a garbage dump.”

Byrne’s comments come after Adams announced on Wednesday the city’s first ever director of rodent mitigation — or “rat czar” — would be Kathleen Corradi.

She was hired months after a job posting went up seeking a candidate “somewhat bloodthirsty” who would turn to “wholesale slaughter” to reduce the rats running around.

Adams has said he’s “fixated on killing rats” and hates the vile vermin, calling them “public enemy number one.” 

On Thursday, PETA said its president Ingrid Newkirk spoke to Rachel Atcheson, special advisor to the chief of staff in Adams’ office, about how the rat population can be reduced in a less cruel way.

“We are in touch with the mayor’s office, but we fear, given people’s demonization of rats, that chemical sterilization (birth control), which is the most humane method short of better trash pick-up and cleaning the streets of human-created food trash, takes time and therefore is deemed too slow in instant gratification and rat carcasses,” Newkirk said in a statement.

“If killing is the goal, more rats will come to fill the void and the cycle will continue,” Newkirk added, fearing city officials’ tough talk on rats means “being kind to these small mammals—who feel pain and fear every bit as much as any dog, cat, or the “rat czar” herself—is apparently not a consideration.”

Newkirk said she told Atcheson diligent trash collecting, and street and sidewalk cleaning is what the city should focus on — not poisoning rats.

Adams’ press secretary Fabien Levy vowed the city would look at “every rat mitigation tool and technique” to eliminate the pests.

“Every New Yorker hates rats — they’re dirty, diseased, and degrade our quality of life.They also pose a public health risk to all New Yorkers,” Levy said in a statement to The Post. “We hired a rat czar to expand what works and bring a unified strategy to the war on rats so we can ultimately make progress and rid of our city of these diseased rodents. 

“We’re glad PETA agrees with the plans we already have in place that place trash out later and have it picked up earlier, but we also continue to look at every rat mitigation tool and technique possible to see what works best for New York City. While we hope to utilize these techniques without causing additional suffering, our priority remains our city’s residents, not its rodents.”

City Hall noted it has rolled out several rat-fighting initiatives, including pushing for trash bins with containers to keep rats away from food — and sanitation picking up 5 million pounds of trash at midnight instead of at 6 a.m.