২০ জানুয়ারী, ২০২৪

"Immediately I knew that’s not a wild rat... It had a shorter, rounder nose, its ears were on the side of its head and it was white. … If you know rats, you know rats."

Said Elm Dylan, quoted in "A waterfront park is overrun with rats. Rescuers are trying to find homes for them. A group of volunteers believes the rodents at Harbor View Memorial Park in Portland are domestic, not wild, and is working to rescue them and find foster homes" (Portland Press Herald).

The rats must be saved... because they are white? White rats, unlike brown rats, are perceived as pets.
How they got [into Harbor View Memorial Park] remains up for debate. Wearing checkered pajama pants and Ugg boots, [Brittney Smith] slipped on a pair of too-big work gloves and headed into the park, arms full of supplies.... She trekked through the snow and set [a] trap, then began tapping on rocks and shining a flashlight into dark crevices where she hoped rats might be burrowing.... 
“Every single animal that needs rescuing, it could be a caterpillar, I’m gonna do it,” she said. She has owned five rats before, she knows what they look like, how they act, what they want to eat. “When I take in an animal I learn every single thing I can.”... 
At Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, several rescuers, including Dylan, spoke before the council, imploring the city to stop using poison to exterminate the rats.... 
In a statement Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Jessica Grondin said that the rat infestation was “severe” and is a public health concern. She said it contributed to the city’s resolve to clear the [homeless] encampment.... “Even if there are
domesticated rats … there are still public health risks that exist for those rats, as well as people.”

The city’s exterminator is “using a variety of methods – bait traps and canine control,” Grondin said...
Smith doesn’t understand why the extermination efforts are necessary. To her, it’s clear most of these rats would die from the cold anyway. “These are pets, they kiss you, they cuddle you, they love you. They were already going to die out here, they don’t need to be poisoned as well,” she said....

They kiss you... they love you....

Are these domesticated or feral?

Speaking of white, the women seem awfully adorable, so young and so inappropriately dressed for rat hunting in pajama pants, Ugg boots, and gloves that don't fit and envisioning rescuing every animal that needs rescuing. She's 20, but she sounds 2.

And how did we get white rats in the first place? Is it something like how we got white people — something about migrating to cold, dark climates and experiencing natural selection? No! Wikipedia tells the grotesque origin story:

Rat-baiting was a popular sport until the beginning of the 20th century. It involved filling a pit with several rats and then placing bets on how long it would take a terrier to kill them all.

It is believed that both rat-catchers and sportsmen began to keep certain, odd-colored rats during the height of the sport, eventually breeding them and then selling them as pets....

While domesticated rats are not removed enough from their wild counterparts to justify a distinct subspecies (like the dog versus grey wolf), there are significant differences that set them apart; the most apparent is coloring. Random color mutations may occur in the wild, but these are rare. Most wild R. norvegicus are a dark brown color, while fancy rats may be anything from white to cinnamon to blue.

Behaviorally, domesticated pet rats are tamer than those in the wild. They are more comfortable around humans and known to seek out their owners while roaming freely....[W]ild rats generally have larger brains....

With smaller brains and a stand-out color, these rats don't seem to have much of a chance. If not rescued or exterminated, they'll live a short, painful life. Or so I imagine. It's interesting that the city is using "canine control." Shades of the old rat-baiting. Presumably, there's no gambling or fun in it these days.

৩৮টি মন্তব্য:

Jim বলেছেন...

My cousin, the herpetologist, would have plenty of good homes for those rodents.

boatbuilder বলেছেন...

"Elm Dylan." Probably paints trees blue.

JRoberts বলেছেন...

They're lab rats... from Wuhan...

Heartless Aztec বলেছেন...

Deploy snakes, hawks, owls, terriers, foxes and bobcats. The problem is solved with nature taking care of nature.
Or, if you want to have more fun, jars of Jiffy extra crunchy emptied out. Rats find it irresistible. A pellet gun with a night scope and a clear fire area. Have some seagulls on hand for a natural morning clean up. Lotsa' videos on You Tube for this'how to' method.
Addendum: We sometimes have a bottle of Jack Daniels. Kill shots allow a half shot glass toss down reward.

Robert Cook বলেছেন...

Rats, wild or domesticated, are very intelligent animals and can interact with humans in a playful and friendly manner as many other animals do. They can be very affectionate pets. Our ingrained repugnance/fear of rats has to do with their (not unearned) reputation as disease carriers.

Iman বলেছেন...

White Rat Privilege!

ceowens বলেছেন...

Did someone on here link to a kid in Alaska who has a rat elimination business? The dogs are pretty fast and I think he also has a mink that helps him out. You might also want to check out the folks in Britain that travel to their various "permissions" at night with air rifles and infrared night vision scopes.

Money Manger বলেছেন...

Perhaps tonight you can watch “Willard”.

BUMBLE BEE বলেছেন...

How many generations till assimilation Cookie?
That's gospel from Detroit.

Temujin বলেছেন...

The white rats are lab rats. They slipped out of a lab in Wuhan China, made their way over to the US. Came into port in Seattle. Migrated to where they heard there's more 'street food' and rats are fairly welcomed. Portland, OR. The first wave came in December (as always). Then they started spreading.

Soon we'll be asked to wear masks, close our businesses, and get vaccinated for something or other. Oh yeah, kids will have to stay home. Good times ahead.

Mike (MJB Wolf) বলেছেন...

My first reaction was “white rats?” Like JR above my assessment is that they’re lab rats. If not from Wuhan they might be from the rogue Chinese labs in Central California. You don’t think that one in Reedley was the only illegal CCP lab in America do you?

Rocco বলেছেন...

In World War II, the Imperial Japanese forces did carry out biological warfare attacks against both China and the US. The one against the US involved plague-infected rats.

China bore the brunt of the attacks; at least 400,000 people died. This Wiki article on Unit 731 has some details: Unit 731

Japan intended to use infected rats launched from submarines against the west cost of the US. This Wiki article on Operation PX has an overview. But it incorrectly states the attacks did not take place. At least one sub was captured en route after the surrender of Japan was announced. And this article states that two were captured by the US, and at least one more was sunk by US forces and found by divers off the coast of Hawaii in 2005: Gigantic WWII Japanese plague-rat sub discovered near Hawaii.

As the rats would have been directly released into the cities, they would have been far more effective than the balloon bombs that floated across the Pacific early in the war.

Mike of Snoqualmie বলেছেন...

This story points out how low Portland has sunk. SAVE THE RATS!

The rats are infesting that park because the city, like Seattle and San Francisco, refuse to deal with the drug problem infesting(!) their cities. There's trash everywhere. Perfect environment for rats.

We have a mouse problem in the country. They come into the house during the winter. They don't stay long, as the smell the cheese wafting from our electronic rat catcher. ZAP! Dead mouse. They're the perfect size to go into a poop bag, and out with the trash.

dbp বলেছেন...

In rat drowning experiments, domesticated rats would swim for long periods of time before drowning (many hours) but wild rats would drown in about 10 minutes. If you rescued a wild rat, let it revive and then put it back into the drowning tank, then it too would last for hours before drowning.

Aggie বলেছেন...

Is is going to be OK to call them vermin? Or will this trigger some delicate, crusading soul?

Old and slow বলেছেন...

Brittney Smith is in for a very busy life rescuing every animal there is in this world. When she transitions, she might consider "Noah" as her new name.

Gulistan বলেছেন...

There was a good This American Life story about a guy who started keeping rats as pets during the pandemic. It helped to demonstrate the appeal.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/801/must-be-rats-on-the-brain/act-one-15

Heartless Aztec বলেছেন...

@Old and Slow
Concur

Rusty বলেছেন...

Robert'll take a couple of hundred.
I'm sure rats serve some useful purpose somewhere, but an urban environment isn't one of them.
"Oh! Look at the cute rats! There's a white one! Can we keep one?"
"I feel sick."
Maybe we do need the plague. Or whatever they carry now.
Thin our herd. We could certainly use it.
On second thought.
Take as many of the home as you can, lady.

Yancey Ward বলেছেন...

Can the reemergence of the Black Death be very far off in our future?

For fuck's sake- these are vermin that need to be exterminated.

n.n বলেছেন...

Albino? They are indeed a rare breed, whose progressive viability are celebrated in parades and colorful banners, for clinical progress in some cultures. To be fair, rats of all colors are prone to inhabit disease infested holes... whores h/t NAACP.

tommyesq বলেছেন...

As a few others have noted, white rats are very commonly used in labs, to experiment on treatments of diseases or to monitor disease progress. If there are a significant number of these in one place, the odds would highly favor a lab release of some sort. I would steer well clear of them.

Bob Boyd বলেছেন...

With smaller brains and a stand-out color, these rats don't seem to have much of a chance.

Yeah, well that's what they said about white people and now look.

Charlie বলেছেন...

This actually says more about the The Portland Press Herald than anything else.

AlbertAnonymous বলেছেন...

Round them up and take them to a mandatory re-education class. There’s nothing they can do about their white privilege, no matter how many classes they take, but make them attend anyway so we can berate them. That oughta help race relations and ease tensions…

Anthony বলেছেন...

>>She's 20, but she sounds 2.

Welcome to 70% of young people anymore. . . . .

Had a friend who had rats as pets. The domesticated ones are adorable.

minnesota farm guy বলেছেন...

Portland, Maine is the spot not Portland OR. Not much more sane than Portland OR, but this is weird even for ME.

stutefish বলেছেন...

Thank god it's the other Portland this time.

AndrewV বলেছেন...

I was wondering if the white rats came from the Oregon Health Science University's lab in Hillsboro. However I think that OHSU lab specializes in primates, not rats.

Rabel বলেছেন...

"Speaking of white, the women seem awfully adorable..."

I think you have misgendered Elm whose pronouns are They/He.

Here's a TicTok briefly featuring Nirn.

rcocean বলেছেন...

"The rat catcher is too tough on the rats. Give those rats a fair show."

First fiction, now fact.

USA = insanity fair.

rcocean বলেছেন...

"The rat catcher is too tough on the rats. Give those rats a fair show."

First fiction, now fact.

USA = insanity fair.

Iman বলেছেন...

The only rat I could ever identify with was Biggy Rat, who was a co-conspirator of Itchy Brother… King Leonardo’s ne’er-do-well sibling.

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

Pet rats are not the same as lab rats. The article refers to them as pet rats, not lab rats.

Wikipedia has separate articles for pet rats and laboratory rats, but both articles tell the same origin story. They came out of the rat-baiting sport. Particular strains have been developed, some with characteristics useful in the lab and others selected for pets.

Craig Mc বলেছেন...

Great. The millenial version of the crazy cat lady, only with rats.

Bunkypotatohead বলেছেন...

They'll save rats and abort all their children.

tommyesq বলেছেন...

Pet rats are not the same as lab rats. The article refers to them as pet rats, not lab rats.

The article refers to the woman's opinion of what kind of rats they are, taking the word of a 20-something-year-old who chases rats in her pajamas and her boyfriend/father's oversized gloves, not a particularly reliable source. At least this is the case based on the non-paywalled part of the article.

mikee বলেছেন...

When the discussion turns to stupidity regarding rats, I am always tempted to place rats in the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch, because both feature a creature not really pining for the fjords.

The Norwegian brown rat - lovely plumage!