Ah rats!

Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.

3 days ago

To my nose rats smell kind of sweet and sour in a mildly unpleasant way, they tend to jump around in a panic which startles me, and no one treats them for the many diseases that they can transmit to humans. But I have encountered some pet rats and I recognized how respectably purposeful they are, and how smart they are, seeming to be almost thoughtful.

Now I have learned that rats are trained for land mine sniffing, tuberculosis detection, alerting to illegal drugs, and locating survivors trapped in earthquake rubble. They seem more like working support animals than mere pets or pests. I wish that we could find a way to stop suffocating rats in glue traps, poisoning them, and beating them to death with shovels. This world is a abattoir, a carnal house, is there any way to fix it?

Ah Rats