All good possibilities. But a moot point now, as they took responsibility for the rats .
I hope someone would do the same for me if a distant adoptor tried to dump one of my rehomes rather than drive the distance to return them, or too embarrassed to contact me to pick them up. I hope somebody would not be devious enough to pick up the rat and hold him up as some kind of trophy in some kind of imagined war between rescues and breeders.
Although in the past Ive had rescue-crazed roommates steal my rats after a falling out, so please understand if I dont take sides here and just get the job done. Thanks all for the amazing help to get these rats back on track.