In the past, rats were rats, some people had them as pets and most did not. Then all of a sudden they became very popular as pets and what this means is they became valuable to the backyard breeders and millers. For the same effort they could make rats that sell for $20 instead of of $4, and the terrible unethical breeding began. Pretty to pretty, not even one tiny thought on health or temperament and especially longevity. The pet rat craze went through phases, I am sure you have seen it...blue dumbos (Ohhhh I want one! I would sell my soul for a BLUE DUMBO!), siamese went through a terrible phase here in Ontario, ending up with terrible people breeding anything that remotely looked Siamese. These rats lived at places like the Chilly Rats did. Outside wire cages, no protection, the ones that escaped through the bars were eaten by the hungry pack of dogs this person kept running loose. They also bred a TON of other animals as well.
Then there was the blazed, high-white rats...more selling of souls. But they were easy to get as Petsmart sold them en masses and they were bred at the mills they got them from. The chances of megacolon were very high and a LOT of rats suffered and died in ignorant owners hands
I was sooo thankful when the high whites slowly disappeared and the pearls and pear merles and minks showed up instead in the pet stores. Unfortunately breeders like Atlantis brought back the blazed and high white rat (and megacolon) and spread it around the breeding community, so now the rescuers and owners in the know, are keeping their eyes out for MC once again
The terrible ethics of our so-called "breeders" ruined the rats genetics to the point where it may never come back in Ontario to those rats living well over 3. And Atlantis keeps "mentoring" these new breeders who look ethical on paper but are not really doing it right as we know. Empire Rattery in Niagara Falls is new, and her stock is from Ashley, her kijiji ads are just like Ashleys and I am sure her ethics are similar as well. Her SO was a mass breeder of feeder rats for many many years so that is where her experience started, but I assume she wanted the bigger prices a breeder can ask for.
I have rats from breeders in my cages...6 from Atlantis (no return policy), 1 from Rambling Rattery, and 4 from some nasty breeder from Brampton...these are the ones I know of, I might have many more from so-called breeders but will never know. You honestly cannot tell the difference between my rescues and the breeders, and most of my rescues are prettier and even nicer for some.
In the Red Flags you see that Nicole says a breeder should NOT compete with the rescues and sadly all these breeders are doing is pumping more "desirable" rats out into a market already heavily saturated.
My rescue babies sit home and I am unable to take in more, the rats from these breeders being dumped outside, or being offered up for free (snake owners look for these ads), or the owner is moving, allergic, bored most likely, has a sick rat (why pay for the vet when you can just get another? is a mindset that is coming back again), etc. If you look at the kijiji ads in Ontario, you are going to find multiple breeders, or oops litters from Petstore Surprises, and there's only so many rescue homes to go around, as there are few active rescues now. I try to take in the sick, aging or mentally unsound as most rescues do not want to, or are unable to help these rats and they are the true deitrus from the breeders. Unfortunately this means many many perfectly wonderful rats die in horrible circumstances every day.