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Mammals of Mass Destruction

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The study, Aplin says, will help boost preparedness against rat-borne disease by enabling doctors to quickly determine which type of black rat was the likely culprit behind an outbreak. "Prompt diagnosis is often the key to effective treatment," he says. And if large-scale rat eradication ever becomes feasible, the study will help rat-zappers target specific vermin.

Despite the destruction they cause, black rats aren't uniformly reviled in Asia. Some Hindus revere them as messengers of the elephant god Ganesh; one temple in Rajasthan reportedly lets thousands of pampered, priest-fed rats run amok. And they're considered a tasty treat by some in Vietnam (where they're served up roasted and spiced at wedding banquets), southern China, and elsewhere. Restaurants in the rural south of Taiwan still prepare specialties like "three cups" rat with basil and chili peppers—a vestige of a poorer time when many islanders couldn't afford chicken or beef.

That's probably not the kind of rat appreciation PETA officials had in mind.

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Posted By: Brien Comerford @ 05/12/2008 7:52:13 PM

Rats are extremely intelligent, sociable and adaptable. Countless people have wonderful pet rats. There is a temple in India that reveres rats. I do fear rats but I assert that rat overpopulation should be humanely curtailed via placing potent contraceptives in food bait for them.
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Posted By: DrZook @ 02/13/2008 5:45:28 AM

Do you take every opportunity to express this paranoid idea that everybody is out to get Asians? Once again, no-one here knows what your ethnicity is until you tell them. Or maybe you think we are all watching you? You seem like someone who is really, really stressed out. Please get some therapy before you flip out completely and hurt yourself or others.
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Posted By: DrZook @ 02/13/2008 5:38:59 AM

Rats are indeed very clever creatures with excellent survival skills in an urban environment. I am currently reading "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman. He has some illuminating comments regarding rats therein. he points out that rats survive in large numbers in the modern world because they are parasitic in respect to human culture. We feed them with garbage and warehouses full of grain and other foodstuffs. The truth of the matter is that while they may have originated in warm Chinese forests, that they would actually not do very well in temperate climates that experience winters, without warm buildings built by humans being made available. The cockroach is another creature in the same situation. They survive year round where there are warm buildings in which to live, but being tropical creatures originally, they would not survive a cold winter. I very much recommend Weisman's book. Very interesting stuff.