Rat Baiting
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.
