have you ever heard this rat's story??

[Petunia]

I have to tell you the bad news first,if you don't already know his story: the poor heroic rat was killed in the end.
but a children's book was written about him, not that there's much comfort in that for those of us who love rats, but at least he wont' be forgotten.

http://books.google.com/books?id=r_Mm5M ... at&f=false


http://books.google.com/books?id=uNau42 ... at&f=false

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... rat_2.html

I was especially touched by the reason he made that long distance swim: he was lonely.

 

[Carol Weekes]

What I don't understand is why they felt they had to kill Razza? Why not return him to the wild rodent population from where he began in the first place? They'd done their tracking and had gathered their research. I haven't read the book, but does the book explain why they felt they needed to trap him towards a lethal end? It doesn't make sense to me, other than the too-often human/scientific stance not respecting animal life, in particular, that of rodents.

 

[Petunia]

well in this case, Carol, they were trying to find ways to eliminate non native, so called "invasive species" from the islands, I guess they've done a lot of damage to NZ, so it wasn't an experiment to find out what rats can do, but more to find out how hard it is to eliminate them, even if you only have a couple.

of course as anyone knows, all you need is one male and one female and you've got WAY more than a couple in a very short time!

this was mentioned in the book I'm reading about lab experiments with rats, but it was done to find out how to exterminate them

 

[jennifervb]

well in this case, Carol, they were trying to find ways to eliminate non native, so called "invasive species" from the islands, I guess they've done a lot of damage to NZ, so it wasn't an experiment to find out what rats can do, but more to find out how hard it is to eliminate them, even if you only have a couple.

of course as anyone knows, all you need is one male and one female and you've got WAY more than a couple in a very short time!

this was mentioned in the book I'm reading about lab experiments with rats, but it was done to find out how to exterminate them

People can be so stupid. They have been trying to exterminate rats for thousands of years... and have failed. Guess these individuals are suffering under the inferiority complex, people tend to develop, when they realize that rats are much better people than they are. :thumbup:

 

[AmandaTrexica]

This is very sad...I know rats can be destructive, and on an island could possibly do quite a buy of damage, but nevertheless this makes me sad.