Rat Writes

Hello. I’m The Rat. If you want to know the truth about laboratory rats read on, or refer to my previous post.

During the early 19th century, suspicious characters called “Rat Catchers” caught and collected as many rats as they could find for a fee. The main intention was to eliminate my species, but when this was proven an impossible feat due to the undeniable intelligence and ingenuity of my race, some of the more sensible Rat Catchers began to see us as delightful companions!  While many of my kind were handed over to the patrons of the Rat Baiting “sport”, a few were kept as pets,  and even encouraged to reproduce and their offspring used for the companionship of humans. The albino (white) rats were especially prized, even though the poor souls were virtually blind, and some time later were the first animals to be bred in captivity to be used solely for scientific research.  Animal experimentation for the most part is a cruel and tortuous practise which has been accepted in human societies all over the world and continues to this day. To highlight two more cases of miss-treatment of rats in the laboratory, meet my does: Sweetness and Clarity.

The Story of Sweetness

Hiya! I’m Sweetness and I like extreme sports like bare-pawed climbing and high elevation jumping.  Also, I love a lie in - sleeping is something I do best! I maintain a healthy diet but I do have a weakness for carbs, especially pasta. When I worked in the lab it was in the department of psychology and the area of research I was involved in was “how dreaming effects survival”. Yes, rats do dream. It’s a fact,  proven by your own human scientists. This is what happened to me. First of all, I was placed into a small pool of water just large enough for me to swim freely in. A kind of upside down flower pot was set in the middle with a big ol’ hole in it. If I wanted a rest from swimming I had to clamber up onto the pot which was fine, only a tad tedious. They kept me there for long periods of time, so if I got sleepy I could lay across the pot with my belly hanging down through the hole but I could barely nap. The worst part of it was that if I started to fall asleep properly (into what you call REM sleep) I would immediately slip through the hole and get a quick lungful of water and instantly wake up again. Can you imagine how tiring it was? I started to feel very disoriented and to top it all off, they began to put me through more horrid tests. I can still recall how bewildering and exhausting it all was.

Clarity’s Story

Uh..Hi. How are you?  I’m Clarity. Um.. I like lots of stuff. I like to play. I get a little distracted.. What was I saying? Oh yeah. I was a lab rat once. To tell you the truth it’s all a bit hazy. I was in drug addiction testing. From the beginning I was kept in solitary confinement. I was so alone I thought I might go mad. One day I was placed in a strange container and I began to feel drowsy. When I woke up I felt very sore and uncomfortable and something was sticking out of me. A tube had been inserted into my jugular vein and was stitched to my back. Over the next few days or weeks I’m not sure how long, I was trained to push a lever and Cocaine was fed into me directly through the tube. I started to become addicted to the stuff. Then I was put into another small box where I heard a nasty loud sound, and at the same moment 10 electric shocks were put through my feet. It really hurt and I was very scared. I was put in this box again and again until I learnt that the loud sound meant the shocks to my feet. I was so unhappy I would press the lever to get the drug. I felt a little better when I took it. Then one day the loud sound came when I touched the lever along with the painful shocks to my feet. It took all my will to resist the lever, because I was addicted by then. Some of the other rats were so far into their addiction they would keep pressing the lever and get the punishment, but I’m not daft.

A note from The Rat: Cases of these particular types of experiments are well documented and within the public domain.The following links show examples and further information:

Dream Removal

Sleep Deprivation

BUAV Report on Drug Addiction in Rats (pdf file)

Cocaine Addiction Studies

The following drugs have been and continue to be used in drug addiction experiments with rats and other animals including monkeys: Cocaine, Cannabis, Alcohol, Tobacco, Amphetamines, Morphine and Heroine.

Who’s the rat? I’m The Rat.

It takes a rat to elevate a puny human mind on the underexposed subject of animal experimentation. Therefore to help me convey this information, I have included the unique perspectives of my delightful does: Persephone, Ariadne, Olympia, Sweetness and Clarity. They were laboratory rats in a previous life.

Persephone’s Story

Hi! Call me Sephy. I’m 10 months old, I like chasing things and my favourite food is peanut butter. I never had a name when I was in the lab -  I was just one long serial number. I was made to do endurance tests as part of a genetics study. I was repeatedly placed on a mini treadmill and if I didn’t keep running I would fall onto a grid which would give me an electric shock. I had to do this many times and the tests seemed to get harder and harder. I would get so tired that my body ached and in the end I would stay on the grid and get the shock. I was so miserable back then.

Ariadne’s Story

Hullo. Pleased to meet you. I’m Ariadne and I’m a slim white doe. I enjoy outdoor pursuits like climbing, foraging and orienteering. I like grooming my pet human and eating yoghurt drops. When I did time in the laboratory I was forced to undergo toxicity tests. I was injected with cellulose fibres which made my insides extremely painful and as a result I now have tumours. I was one of the lucky ones. There are loads of toxicity tests that my sisters and brothers have to endure. In some they have to breath in noxious gases, in others they are force fed nasty toxic substances which cause illness, suffering,  pain or death. In the LD50 test, rats are given high doses of substances and only half of the group survive.

Olympia’s Story

Hi there! I’m Olympia,  and I’m a “Zucker rat” which means I was specially bred to be obese so that I could be used in diabetes studies. I was solely a breeding rat myself, to provide the scientists with lots more test subjects.  I can’t complain. I was fed well and all I had to do was raise countless litters. I don’t deny it was tiring work, with not much respite and the accommodation was terribly cramped, but at least I had the company of the little ones! Nowadays I enjoy eating out (as a Zucker I have a relentless appetite) and looking after my many nieces and nephews.

No Rest for Mum

As a breeder rat a mother will raise one litter after another until she is no longer fertile, and all within the confines of a small box like the ones here:-

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Note from The Rat: 

Although this site is a little tongue in cheek, these accounts are based on fact, and there are plenty of well-documented cases of the experiments mentioned above. The following links show just a few examples:

The Endurance Test

The Toxicity Test

The LD50 Test

The Zucker Rat

Hello, it’s me again.  I prefer to remain anonymous, but you may relate to me as The Rat and I’m going to dispel your misconceptions about my tragically maligned species. Today’s topic is Rat Baiting.

For some unfathomable reason, during the early 1800’s, a bunch of undiscriminating humans thought it was a fun idea to use my undeserving ancestors in a brutal and blood chilling sport known as Rat Baiting. In this seedy pastime a hundred or so of my fellow rats were caught and thrown into a big pit with a couple of bloodthirsty dogs, while human onlookers would bet on how many Rats their favourite pooch would slaughter within a minute. Professional “Rat Catchers” were employed to capture poor unsuspecting Rats for the sport, and dogs were bred specifically for the purpose, mainly the breeds now known as Terriers.

Such a travesty was not restricted to Rats, even cute and fluffy human favourites like badgers and bears were used in this sordid baiting game. Also on the list of innocents “gone to the dogs” were bulls, lions, monkeys, donkeys and even ducks!

The sport was deemed inhumane in 1835 with the onset of the Cruelty to Animals Act, when it was outlawed to use the larger or cuddly creatures in the game, but the law was not enforced for us ill-favoured Rats, and our human captors continued to degrade and torture us for fun in this diabolical venture, right up until 1912 when the last Rat baiter was prosecuted.

As an esteemed advocate for Ratkind, I take it upon myself to enhance your inadequate and flimsy knowledge of Rattus norvegicus history. In the process, it is my intention to re-educate your puny human minds on the facts of Rat supremacy through our long and tortuous history.

Firstly, due to human ignorance from the outset, we Rats were given the inappropriate name Rattus norvegicus or Norway rat, because some incompetent fool claimed we landed in Britain via Norway, when in actual fact my ancestors arrived on British shores from Denmark during the 18th century. My great great great great grandfather (who still lives, albeit with a troublesome Mycoplasmosic cough) told me that during his youth an older relative reiterated the ramblings of an ancient Rat (who lived to a grand old age of seven years) the story of our beginnings, and it was his belief that our original ancestors were first heroically forging lives for themselves in Northern China.

Of course humanity has deemed us worthy of many other silly names, like brown rat (how unimaginative), common rat (I find this one extremely insulting and disrespectful), and wharf rat (well, at least this is bordering on reality - my ancient cousins were often found frequenting the wharfs and harbours all over the world - they were seasoned and gallant travellers), and finally Fancy rat which displeases me the most in its lack of sophistication and conceit! As if you primates could tame us noble Rats, my friends who own human pets laugh at their good fortune to be eating fine culinary delights off the plates of their men or women servants! Although I must admit, the love of Rats in humans is a desirable trait and demands some respect from my associates and myself.

One of the worst miscarriages of justice inflicted on us Rats is the presumption that we carried and spread the Bubonic plague (or the Black Death) during the middle ages. This is nothing less than a despicable piece of propaganda used by humans to alienate us from society. As we Rattus norvegicus Rats improved and enriched Europe with our presence after 1700 we could not be accountable for the plague. It was our poor suffering (and sadly inferior) cousins rattus rattus or Black rats as you call them that had the misfortune of being cursed by pesky fleas which sickingly fed off them and other poor unfortunate mammals and infected them all with the disease. The real cause of the plague was the insiduous and unhygienic living conditions which you humans managed to create through the policy of minimal or no sanitation, ignorance, and poor management.

The next atrocity unleashed on Rats by humans was the sinister, brutal game you liked to play during the 19th century right up until 1912 called “Rat Baiting“. I will disclose the horrors of this subject in my next post.

As a R.A.T. of a somewhat refined and debonair demeanor I take it upon my humble self to educate you humans on the proper manner in which to adore and worship my distinguished associates, and I hereby introduce you crude apes to the multitude of vulgarities you have bestowed upon us poor innocent R.A.T.S. (that’s Rather Amazing Terrestrials).

Rattus norvegicus