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The Rat Fan Club
Rats in the News
Please let us know if you see any news items featuring
rats that aren’t posted here.
Thanks!
The Rat Lady’s Corner
Updates about Debbie’s activities and rats.
4/18/08
Loopy
rat race marks 36th year
Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA
Many of the rats were named in keeping with the theme: Won Ton
Suzie, Rickshaw Rat, Chop Stick and Top Suey.
Each of the 11 rats was trained by teams ...
4/11/08
Hundreds
of rats, four starving snakes found in Rochester home
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
Authorities say a woman has been found living with hundreds of rats
and four malnourished snakes in a woman’s home
outside Rochester.
...
4/7/08
Rodents'
fans pipe up with their pets' rattributes
Boston Globe - United States
They think of a sewer rat, a junkyard rat," said Barbara
Leger, 41, of Salem, who has
owned 13 domestic rats,
including Tulip, barely 4 inches long (not ...
Includes short video.
4/4/08
Science
Museum rats are hoops fanatics
Richmond Times Dispatch - Richmond,VA,USA
A basketball-playing rat heads for the goal at the Science Museum of
Virginia. Yesterday four trained rats played to predict the winner
of the NCAA Division ...
Includes a short video.
Rat-or-two-ey?
Dorset Echo - England,UK
By Fiona Pendlebury DOGS have a reputation for
being man's best friend but rats could be a strong contender for the
title. The highly intelligent creatures ...
Help
home a rat
Daily Echo - Southampton,England,UK
THEY have an unfortunate image as dirty, disease-ridden creatures . . . but
rats just want to be loved. As today marks the sixth annual World Rat
Day, ...
3/26/08
The
smell of a rat to catch a rat
New Zealand Herald - New Zealand
The smell of a lab rat is being used to attract the millions of wild
rats that are threatening New Zealand's
native species...
One of the interesting bits in this article is that
scientists walked some of the lab rats on a leash outside to
attract a wild rat!
Rats
'learn to use tools'
NEWS.com.au - Australia
Six adult "degus" rodents, a kind of
small rat, were trained at a laboratory at the Japanese
government-funded RIKEN research
institute and all of them were ... (Actually, while a degu is a rodent, it is not closely related to rats.)
3/18/08
Trash-Talking
From the DC Metro?
New York Times - United States
This text followed: “Unlike some subway systems (which will remain
nameless), you don’t see rats the size of house cats
roaming the Metro. Why not? ...
3/6/08
At new North Shore Rat
Club, owners meet and share information
Salem Gazette - MA, USA
But they are incredibly proud rat owners — nine rats to
be exact. The couple recently formed a Salem-based group called
the North Shore
Rat Club where ...
3/5/08
Crafty
rat burglar raiding new wheelie bins
Hastings Observer - Hastings,England,UK
By Sandra Daniels A SNEAKY rat has been making regular snack visits
to his local wheelie bin via a tiny hole at the back.
Devious Mr Ratty was finally ...
11/10/07
Where
the Rats Come Out to Play
New York Times Blogs
- New York,NY,USA
In City Hall Park, rats scurry about during the day. “At first
I thought it was a squirrel,” said one man who was eating his
lunch on a bench. ...
2/25/08
Rats
galore at humane society
Belleville Intelligencer - Belleville,Ontario,Canada
What kind of a rat would dump 20 pet rats in a bucket in the doorway
of the local humane society? It’s a question
that’s vexing workers at the Avonlough Road ...
2/24/08
Backstage
with the Oscar winners
Chicago Tribune - United States
One woman reporter thanked Brad Bird, winner of animated feature for Ratatouille, for helping change her
loathing toward rats.
2/23/08
Year
of the (wet) Rat parade for stormy SF
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
A whole bunch of giant rats were getting gussied up…(be sure
to click on the photos to see the giant gold rat)
2/21/08
Rescued
rat is star attraction
Wiltshire Times - UK
2/21/08
Year
of the Rat, and why they're such great pets
Chilliwack Times - Chilliwack,British Columbia,Canada
2/17/08
Silly Rat Jokes
http://www.thestar.com/living/Starship/article/304306
A great clip from the TV show Animal Cops San Francisco with an
officer rescuing a young roof rat from a glue trap.
The rat must be in shock because she does not even try
to bite. It appears that the
officer uses alcohol to remove the glue
from the rat, but vegetable oil
will remove the glue too.
http://animal.discovery.com/beyond/player.html?playerId=203719213&categoryId=210013720&lineupId=37046453&titleId=29691039
12/10/07
A Rat rides on a Cat who rides on a Dog. (Also several
other clips of these 3 animals who live with a homeless man in
Santa Barbara, CA.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuuesBhOR9g
2/13/08
Don’t
use glue traps for rats, say animal rights activists
2/6/08
Some
people enjoy having rats as pets
Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA
2/6/08
Genetic studies show that most populations of roof rats,
also called black rats, (Rattus rattus) originated in India.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080201093354.htm
2/4/08
A short article about Year of the Rat stamp
designs. Unfortunately no
pictures.
http://www.courant.com:80/features/lifestyle/hc-stamps0205.artfeb05,0,2951726.story
2/3/08
A blog including photos of
Year of the Rat items, including a beautiful Hong Kong
stamp.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/redlantern/archives/130935.asp?from=blog_last3
2/3/08
Red rat-motif panties popular
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/2/3/nation/20030007&sec=nation
also rat folklore
http://thestar.com.my:80/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/2/3/lifefocus/20189942&sec=lifefocus
and
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/2/3/lifefocus/20199582&sec=lifefocus
2/3/08
In celebration of The Year of the Rat, The San Francisco
Chronicle featured 2 articles:
Little known facts about rats (pet rats!)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/PK71UGEMH.DTL
Rats in the movies
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/PK71UGEKS.DTL
1/31/08
Be
kind to rodents in Year of the Rat, plead animal lovers - Feature
Earthtimes - London,UK
In this article, spokespeople
for PETA explain, “The rat
is nice and lovable. It smells like perfume, laughs when tickled and posses
a psychology similar to humans,” and call for a boycott on companies
that conduct experiments on rats, particularly Mars, Inc.
1/23/08
Film
Ratatouille blamed for unwanted rats
Northampton
Chronicle & Echo - Northampton,England,UK
A county animal charity has blamed a children's film for a big rise in the
number of unwanted rats.
1/22/08
The movie Ratatouille
is nominated for 5 Academy Awards:
Animated Feature Film
Original Screenplay
Sound Mixing
Sound Editing
Original Score
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080122/120102108000.html
1/16/08
A wild rat is seen jumping into a baby stroller in a
park in Washington DC.
http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/2008/01/rat_jumps_into_baby_stroller_in_dupont_c.php
12/18/07
Scientists have discovered a new giant rat in the
jungles of New Guinea. Very cute!
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/monster-rat-found-in-lost-world-jungle/2007/12/17/1197740165020.html
11/28/07
The November 2007 issue of the BBC Wildlife magazine has a wonderful article about wild rats! The article is very positive about
rats and presents them as interesting wild animals, debunking some of the
myths about them. The best
thing about it though is the photos…amazing and beautiful. One is a full page of a mother rat
carrying a baby who looks like she is smiling!
You can buy a copy of the magazine at http://www.bbcwildlifemagazine.com/viewIssue.asp?id=880
10/1/07
Ratatouille Sparks
French Rat Craze
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071001162855.g0dnu58t&show_article=1
8/07
Sheila McGregor of Redding,
CA writes, “I just got an ad in
the mail today from Designer Checks, and one of their Disney-themed checks
and matching checkbook cover is “Ratatouille’s Just
Desserts,” rats from the movie happily eating desserts. With
pink noses!!!!!”
8/4/07
A review of the book Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and
the Nature of Feeling Good, including
an interview with author Jonathan Balcombe,
with a good portion about rats.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=134&objectid=10455669
7/10/07
A study shows rats are kind and generous and will work
to provide food for other rats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/science/10rat.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Rats in Columbia
learning to sniff out mines become more bold when
with raised with kittens.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Rats-and-Cats-Trained-for-Detecting-Land-Mines-61028.shtml
7/24/07
A positive article about rats in the New York Times!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/science/24angi.html?em&ex=1185508800&en=4da6c888c62a83a3&ei=5087%0A
Rats on the Internet
A video of Dr. Jaak Panksepp explaining how he discovered rats laugh in
ultrasound. Includes rats
wrestling with his hand.
Fantastic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuceywaOUs
A giant African pouched rat using the toilet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieAmdixoJ4w
A Rat coloring page
http://www.first-school.ws/t/cprat.htm
Two rats popping balloons. Watch how one rat runs away with the
last one to keep it away from the other rat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DcXwZhX_a0
A sad and disturbing
futuristic story of how a wild rat falls in love with a lab rat through the
influence of an empty bag of Cheetos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KniV2OGwSms
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