Raggie: A good friend of ours had a pet rat, and pet rats may be all you say, but I still have problems with the thought. I still recall Life magazine pixes of New York City during the rat infestations of the 1920's. Yaaaaghhh!
The most common rat, Rattus norvegicus (Norway, or sewer rat) is the disease carrying, food ruining, little, fuzzy creature that brought us the Bubonic Plague in the Middle Ages. Can you say mega health hazard?
The common rat can chew through metal, plastic, or wood, will squeeze through tiny openings you wouldn't believe possible, can climb a brick wall like it was horizontal, and has absolutely no practical purpose that I can determine.
I believe that nothing was created without a purpose, but rats do come close.
IMHO The only good "wild" rat is a dead one, and they can get dead by whatever instrumentality one chooses, the more efficient, the better, thank you very much. If someone can make a sport of eliminating these and other pests, others should not become too upset because somebody may be having "FUN" while providing the service. Heaven forefend!
If they'd put a bounty of $1.00 on rats, the population would decline, and once again, an entire generation would thrill to the statement "He outsmarted the rat!"
