Rats!

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

As per previous, a cute, small furry creature with long tail and whiskers. Commonly found having to live near the litter and filth etc that disgusting humans leave lying around.

[david lang]

I don't look over my shoulder, rats aren't that tall. Mor can they use shotguns - is evrybody sure what a rat is?

Dave

[John Cartmell]

An intelligent, living creature - like you are supposed to be? Have you ever observed or studied rats?

[Homer2911]

Call the local authority pest people.

They will happily come along and put poisoned bait down on a regular basis until the day when the bait is left untouched, at which point it is safe to assume that the rats have gone - for now!

[Sam Nelson]

What, and kill the poor little things? Heartless brute.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Why? Can they help with those who don't provide context?

Yes, we are aware that there are some people who take a perverse delight in causing suffering. Hence this thread.

[Sam Nelson]

The only good rat's a dead rat. The same is true for shitehawks.

[Mike Barnes]

I take back what I wrote about contract killers. :-)

[Roger]

The message from John Cartmell contains these words:

You're barking up the wrong tree. All I was probing for was an outright condemnation of the millions who do fish in the same terms as those you used in your rant against fox hunters.

[John Cartmell]

Your attitude and state of ignorance noted.

[John Cartmell]

But more sucessfully you will kill off all the other animals that help keep pests down - so making yourself more work in the long run, even if you ignore all the harm and suffering that you cause.

Poisoning pests does not work and has never worked. The only solution is to remove whatever it is that makes them pests in the first place. In the case of rats it is usually badly discarded leftovers, insecure food-stores, &c. Keep your own place clean and, if your (human) neighbours do the same, you are unlikely to have pests - which begs the question of who is the pest in the first place.

[david lang]

What? Weil's disease, salmonella, tuberculosis, cryptosporidiosis, E.Coli, foot and mouth disease, leptospirosis, murine typhus, hantaviruses, trichinosis, streptobacillus moniliformis - oh and didn't they carry the fleas that spread bubonic plague?

Sounds pretty damn valid to me!

Dave

[Chris Bacon]

Causing unnecessary suffering is illegal. I thought this thread was about killing rats, if you say it's about perverse delight the you're on your own.

[John]

Chipmunks and cats don't spread Weils disease or any of the myriad other plagues which rats do. When you live in a rural environment you get to realise just how destructive the little furry creatures actually are and lose your sympathy for such vermin. You want to live with rats uncontrolled, fine just don't expect others to have the same emotional tolerance

John

(who has a stock of rat poison, a .22 and no sympathy for ratty or his friends)

[Roger]

The message from "John" contains these words:

Ratty was a Water Vole.

[John]

Water voles do not generally travel a distance and chew their way into my feed store so are safe from my control methods. However if any do trespass as above then if it looks like a duck sounds like a duck and walks like a duck...........................

[Andy Dingley]

Would you be saying that if you had an infestation of chavs, stealing the fat balls from the birdtable.

[Andy Hall]

Easy one.

The government.

[Andy Hall]

This really demonstrates a tremendous inconsistency.

On the one hand, it is OK for there to be a huge waste of Parliamentary time on the non-issue of fox hunting.

While I would not be particularly interested in going fox hunting, I don't think that it is the business of government to waste taxpayer's money on pointless legislation. This is the same mindset that attempts to regulate building activities on the pretext of safety. Both arguments are bogus. The problem is that most of the electorate are either not bright enough or have the interest to see these things for what they are - bullshit.

On the other, it is perfectly OK to shoot or poison Rattus Norvegicus because it is deemed to be vermin. Really it only becomes vermin because of the laziness of Homo Sapiens.

The reality is that there is no need for government to be involved in any of it.

[Andy Hall]

Humans are pretty effective carriers either directly or indirectly of most of those.

So in scientific terms, most mammals can carry most of these pathogens and more.

In emotional terms, rats are perceived to be a major carrier, whether or not the numbers actually stack up.

As long as we understand that this is actually an emotional argument and that we should therefore kill rats, that's OK.

However, we really shouldn't kid ourselves that this a statistically significant issue.