Jan 12 2011
Rats!
Last week the A&E Network show “Hoarders” showed Humane Society of the United States personnel rescuing 2,000 rats. Yes, rats.
We think keeping rats in your house on purpose is weird, to say the least. But to each his own. And for the record, the real Pied Piper led troublesome rats to their death in a German river, not into a “rescue” van.
But the show, and Wayne Pacelle's blogging about the “Rescue of 2,000 Pet Rats,” made us think.
We asked ourselves: “Wait a second—are rats now pets? Really?” And then a few philosophical pieces fell into place.
Lots of people (most notably pet breeders) have suggested that Pacelle and his cohorts at the Humane Society of the United States secretly want to eliminate the whole institution of pet ownership.
Maybe—just for the sake of argument—we need to turn that idea on its head and look at it a little bit differently. Instead of getting rid of pets, perhaps HSUS wants to elevate as many species as possible to “pet” status. Could that explain what we're seeing?
Maybe the most effective way for HSUS to realize PETA's "total animal liberation" dream is to force us all to turn our homes into menageries of every imaginable kind of fauna. When every animal is a "companion," after all, it's easy to make it socially unacceptable to slaughter, eat, exhibit, or experiment on them.
Americans regard different animals, ... well, differently. Cats, dogs, hamsters, and (for some) ferrets are cute, fluffy, and lovable. Mules, horses, and oxen are explicitly "work" animals whose role is to be a tool for humans. Cows, pigs, and chickens are there for us to eat. Flies are for swatting. You get the idea.
For most people, encountering a rat is not an occasion for warm-and-fuzzy feelings. It usually brings to mind thoughts of Bubonic Plague, and ends with a shopping trip for lethal traps. Just ask the custodians at the Los Angeles City Hall.
Horses aren't usually thought of as pets either. Traditionally, horses were transportation for people and a tool on the battlefield. They work in the fields, not in the condo kitchen.
But in effectively banning U.S. horse slaughter in 2007, HSUS made the emotional appeal that horses should be regarded as pets. As recently as last month, one HSUS state director was telling reporters, “Horses are not food animals in this country; they are companions.”
It’s true that some people have had special relationships with their horses. Robert E. Lee’s horse has its own public gravesite. And there are some people who think rats make okay pets. But these are certainly the exception, not the rule. For every person with a pet rat, after all, there's someone else with a pet snake. For those people, rats aren't pets; they're pet food.
Speaking of snakes, our search for intellectual consistency at HSUS hits a snag when we look at so-called “exotic” animals. On the day before the piece about “Pet Rats” appeared, Wayne Pacelle's ghost-writing blog staff gloated that Ohio's outgoing Governor had issued an Executive Order banning Ohioans from keeping those “exotics” as pets. Pacelle's blog lauded this move as a vital protection for “public health and safety.”
Armed with this knowledge, let's review the HSUS catechism.
Rats are pets. Horses are pets. Snakes and tigers are not pets. Neither are bears, deer, or raccoons. And they definitely shouldn’t be hunted either, even when their numbers threaten the “public health and safety” of people. Even “nuisance” wild animals should only be handled by HSUS-approved “humane” methods.
It seems that HSUS believes all animals have their place. Some are pets, and others get to duke it out in the natural world. In a pinch, though, HSUS will shoot them with birth-control darts to make it a fair fight.
This is sort of like the animal version of how some people are born in America, and others are born in Bangladesh. (Tough luck, Skippy. You're a badger, not a kitty-cat.) And even people who argue that some rats (but not others) make good pets wind up looking arbitrary to everyone other than HSUS. Which is odd, considering how arbitrary HSUS's philosophy seems to be.
Apparently, in HSUS's preferred world view we're supposed to treat every domesticated animal like a pet. Hobby breeding is a no-no. When we eat animals, it's “abuse,” of course. But other animals have a magical trump card. (Except dogs.) Wild animals, on the other hand, must be left alone, free from human “interference.” That spells the end of zoos, circuses, and aquariums.
The more we step back and look at all of this, the clearer it is that HSUS is really making it up as it goes along.
The bottom line is that humans' relationships with animals are already thorny enough without self-styled “experts” telling us what's what. If you like having pet rats, so be it. If you don't want to eat pork, it's a free country. And if you want to send your horse to slaughter because it makes good economic sense, maybe HSUS shouldn't be forbidding it.
The group's whole “All Animals” shtick applies, in an Orwellian sense, more equally to some animals than to others. And HSUS will have a coherent intelligible philosophy when all pigs can fly.
Or when all rats are pets.
Posted on 01/12/2011 at 01:08 PM by the HumaneWatch Team
Animal Agriculture • Horses • Pets • Wildlife • (12) CommentsComments
I have to admit- I used to raise mice as pets/show animals. I have always enjoyed genetics and working to get different body types and colors was fun. Now granted, any that didn’t pass my quality test were fed out (after being killed) to snakes/reptiles. I’m pretty sure the HSUS wouldn’t have liked that. However I always euthanize quickly and what I believe to be humanely. But yes- mice and rats can be pets, actually great pets in my opinion.
My ex had pet rats. He even took them to the vet, and one was treated for cancer twice before being euthanized (yes, that’s right, the rat was treated for cancer; I thought it was insane to spend that kind of money on a rodent). Pet rats usually are bi-colored, etc., and don’t look like your regular Norway rat.
I have a house chicken. She steals my food (and the dog’s), sleeps at the head of my bed and loves to snuggle and be petted. I got a lot of chickens, this one was “weird” - kept running and jumping up on me instead of staying with the flock - I never actually intended to have a chicken in my house. Here she is, though. She’s as smart as a dog, interacts with people, complains when she’s lonely… it has been a fascinating experience.
I suspect that HSUS would condemn me for that. After all, chickens are supposed to be allowed free range and all that (when put with the other chickens she comes running back to me; she hates pecking orders). I did allow my other chickens free range this year after I started this enterprise. more than half of the original number have been killed by predation. I’m not going to free range anymore. It’s too hard to keep burying carcasses.
HSUS doesn’t get it. I would bet none of them ever lived on a farm and a great deal of them have never had pets, or if they have, have anthropomorphized them with sweaters, hats, etc. or carried them around in little purses…
A pet is any animal that shares companionship with you beyond their usefulness to you. An animal which is only used within a utilitarian framework (plow horse, chicken flocks for meat or eggs, sheep for wool and slaughter) is livestock. They aren’t animals that you invest yourself in too much emotionally, though you look towards their well-being because keeping them healthy is what makes them profitable. A pet is kept with no expectation of profitability or usefulness.
At least that’s my definition.
I saw the show, and believe me, the rats were out of control!
Contrary to the HSUS report, the man kept only ONE rat as a pet. He was taking no chance at further breeding. Plus, he has continued to trap and find homes for rats that showed up after the show.
While HSUS assisted and provided the truck for transport, it was North Shore Rescue that really took on the burden. North Shore does not run shelters, but does find foster homes for pets while they work to find homes for them.
HSUS is pushing its own cultural ideals on others. Eating meat of whatever kind is not a moral issue, it’s a cultural one.
Some cultures eat cat, dog, rat or horse. Others eat spiders, grubs and other insects. Are we to assume they have no morals because they don’t live the HSUS dream?
Certain Americans (HSUS-ites) try to deny that eating horse, or other different meats, is a cultural tradition for their “kind”, but lo and behold, horse meat was a common meal in the American past. It still is though many would deny that fact.
So, imagine that HSUS gets it way and all farms and slaughter houses are closed. We, as a people, will regress to eating whatever meat we can catch (including cat, dog, rat and horse) just to survive.
Of course, in this imaginary future, those who hunt now will be superior to those left to learn on their own, how to make it in a world with no one supplying their protein. They will eat rat and we will eat deer, moose and horse.
Reminds a while back when contestants in a reality show killed and ate rats to survive an AR group (PETA I think) sued the production company for animal abuse.
I’ve had rats as pets, and I’ve had a snake that ate feeder rats. I had no moral dilemna in making that distinction. Of all rodents, rats are actually the best pets—much cleaner, smarter, and friendlier than hamsters, mice, gerbils, or guinea pigs.
“We asked ourselves: “Wait a second—are rats now pets?”
First off, yes, rats (more specifically, the domesticated or “fancy” variety of the Brown Rat, Rattus norvegicus) have been a domesticated species of pet since at least the 18th and 19th centuries. Domesticated rats pose no more of a serious health risk than do other common small mammal pets, and they do not carry the bubonic plague at all.
As such, these “domesticated” fancy rats bear several noticeable differences from their wild counterparts, perhaps the most obvious of which are their physical appearances and coloration, which (in most instances) is only typically achieved through generations of selective breeding and propagation in captivity. There are also hairless varities of domestic rats and mice. There are also several physiological and behaviorial differences between “fancy” rats as well (domesticated rats are in general tamer and more accustomed to humans than wild rats. Domesticated laboratory and fancy rats and mice are also widely produced as feeder items for most species of snakes and other carnivorous reptiles.
I keep fancy rats as pets. They’re almost as behaviorally distinct from feral Norway rats as cocker spaniels are from coyotes. I also support research on rats when it is scientifically necessary. I recognize that feral rats inchabiting human structures does no one any good. And I understand that reptiles have to eat, preferably humanely euthanized rats - and unlike HSUS, I acknowleged there are economical methods already in use.
What I expected to hear from HumaneWatch was an acknowledgement of how utterly incompetent the HSUS members catching the rats were.
Capturing that many loose rats was bound to be a rodeo, but HSUSers are regularly seen putting them at risk of serious physical damage through improper handling using methods we never once see the people at North Star employing. There’s already a drinking game starting to circulate in fancy rat circles based on the stupid and dangerous capture methods used by people in HSUS t-shirts.
HSUS is using this as a promotional opportunity, but as usual, they are not supporting the housing, feeding, medical care or transport of these rats - Andy’s Pet Shop and North Star Rat Rescue are doing all the heavy lifting.
How about a link to NSRR so people can donate to them and do some real good for these pets?
I do believe that others have already pointed out the ignorance of your “Wait a second-are rats now pets?” statement. While I agree with the silliness of the HSUS, please remember that just because YOU have never owned an animal as a pet, does not mean that they are not pets. I have never owned a snake, yet I understand that they are pets.
While I agree with your stance on the HSUS, I too disagree on your stance on rats. I used to breed fancy rats. They are fabulous pets. Sweet natured, very clean & quiet. Domestic (fancy) rats have been selectively bred for millions of generations to be clean, stoic, and have no aggression because they were bred to have painful procedures done on them as one of the world’s top laboratory animals. When I was studying lab animal tech, it was the hamsters and the rabbits you had to watch out for, not the rats.
I agree to each his own, I don’t keep rats as pets, I raise and breed snakes and other reptiles, but my boyfriend has a pet mouse. I have no issue with people wanting to keep them as pets. I also have 4 horses and love them dearly, but I also don’t have an issue with horse slaughter, I couldn’t personally do it, but as long as they are killed in a humane fashion then I think it’s fine. I feel the same way about any animal, even dogs and cats. Like I said, I couldn’t personally eat horse, dog, cat, or snake, mainly cause of my relationship with them, but if others do, that’s fine.
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Why yes, some rats are pets. I am not sure about the feral rats being pets. But there are many people who keep rats as pets and the little buggers are smart and companionable. I have a couple and for sure they are pets. As to my “wierdness”, I suppose there is something to that, but I am a professional and a wife and mother. So at least a very functioning member of society.
HSUS is weird though.