I am a security guard. One site I am regularly posted at (fri and sat nights) is a theme park for kids in SW Ontario Canada. It has a fairy-tale theme, climbing frames, a water splash play park, games to play, and stage plays. They also have a lot of animals there. A red fox, an owl, peacocks, lynx kittens, horses, cows, ducks, geese, otters, and 5 seals.

This past night, I found, in an outbuilding at the edge of the park, a 10x8 room filled with racks of lab-style bin cages of mice and rats. They were terribly overcrowded, with up to 8 adolescent rats in one bin (and these bins were, by cage calculator standards, too small for even one rat). One bin held three mothers and their litters of a week or so old babies. To make matters worse, the staff charged with keeping them clean hasn't been dumping the litter, just adding more on top of the soiled stuff, so the poor rats have only a scant few inches of space in the bins between the litter and the lid. Most had no food in their bins. They were feeding them seed mix, when they were fed at all. I fed them and refilled any empty water bottles. There has to be at least 70 rats in there. I have no idea how many mice. It stinks of pee and feces, and all the rats were sneezing from the ammonia build up. These poor, mistreated, abused creatures are there only to feed the fox, owl, etc. and their lives are brutal as well as short. This bothers me, and I can't let it go on. I will be calling the Humane Society on Monday.

I got three boys out last night. I am going to try getting one or two of the moms and their litters out tonight. I just can't stand by and let their lives be nasty and brutal as welll as short.

If anyone in Ontario can take some of the rats I'm able to get out of that hell-hole, I'd be forever grateful. I can't afford and don't have the space for any more rats (I usually have 15, the 3 I got out last night make it 18), and I want whatever of these guys I can rescue to go to great homes with folks who will spoil them like crazy. If anyone in southwestern Ontario wants a pair (or more!) of rats, please msg. me by PM. Please help me get more of these rats out of hell.

S.

Where in SW ontario?
I live in SW ontario, canada sort of --  too.
what town?

It sounds a bit sad for the other animals being in a theme park too.

I hear ya.  It's very sad and hard to sleep at night thinking of animals having to suffer through that kind of life (millions of them).  Good luck with rescuing some of them.  I wonder if there is any way to convince the management to do a better job?

Its a sad situation, but by you removing the rats isnt going to change the situation, the theme park will just get more.  Unless you try changing their husbandry practices, this 'rescue' is not going to go anywhere.

Have you thought of contacting the Humane Society?  I know they tend to police the entertainment industry and theme parks would be included in this, I think.
Just a thought.

The call to the humane society has been placed from a payphone in another city.  I don't want anyone thinking it was me.. if they find out, I lose my job, then I can't help them anymore.

I got a mum and her litter out Sat.  The babies are awesome.  So soft and sweet and so cute it hurts!  They opened their eyes yesterday.  I can't believe how much I missed having babies in the house.  Gaw!  I'm a big mushy sap!  There are 9 black hoodies who will need homes in about 2-3 weeks.  In the meantime, I'm handling them as often as their mom will permit.  I want them well socialized.  Mum isn't.  I'm pretty convinced, by her reactions to being handled, that she has been abused.  She is terribly fearful and struggles like hell against being handled at all.  Poor girl.  I'm pretty sure she is pregnant again.  There was a male in the cage with her and the babies and she has a certain roundness of figure that doesn't fit her malnourished bony body.  She is eating like a horse for me, and (miracle of miracles!) actually took some corn from my hand last night. 

The three little boys are making progress too.  No longer quite as fearful, one of the three (the runt, go figure) will come out onto my hands, ride my shoulder, and climb around on my shirt.  The other two, somewhat bigger, are still too scared to come onto my hands, but they have both taken food from my hands.  Progress.  I hope to have them socialized soon too.  They don't have the mom's history of abuse or mistrust in humans, so I am sure they will come around before she will.  They're all very cute, with no behavior or temperament problems. 

Please help me find homes for these little lovies.  The more homes I can find, the more abuse victims I can rescue.

S.

Wow, that was rough... I'm sure S. is just doing what he/she thinks is best.  I'd have a hard time quitting that job knowing that I'd no longer have access to these guys.  Of course the Humane Society is a great route to take in helping them, but it's hard to say how aggressive each town's HS is.  I'd feel better staying involved at this point.  Peta goes to alot of trouble to get people placed undercover into situations like this to help expose the problem.
I agree, though, that it needs to be fixed not just bandaided.  Congrats on the phone call you made---make more, alot more.  Let 'em try to fire you for exposing their animal abuse (I'm assuming that's illegal in Canada too)-that would be a great lawsuit

Hey all.
Are you ready for the next Ratty Rescue installment?

All the help I was given allowed me to get another female out yesterday night. She settled into her transport cage (after giving my finger a nip) and I thought that would be all there was to it until we got home. About 2 hours later, I microwaved a chicken TV dinner and went to share some with my new little friend. I opened the transport cage... to find the new little girl deep in the process of giving birth.
I knew she was pregnant, but not *that* pregnant! I figured (from *her* figure) that we'd have a couple of days for her to settle in at my place before she had her litter. But she is a small-boned girl, and the litter was fairly small, so I guess I underestimated her due date. Either that or she was waiting to get out of the filthy hellhole she was in before having her kids.
At least we had a warm staff room to hang out in. I made sure she was as comfortable as possible and left her alone to do what instinct told her to. In this, she's the expert and I'd be in the way. She had 9, but 3 were sadly stillborn. The three who didn't make it will get a loving burial in my garden in the spring. The survivors look like they're doing well. They're so tiny and fragile.

I used some of the funds that wonderful people sent me via Paypal to get an aquarium for her and her babies on the way home from work. She and her 6 babies are now settled in, and she has proved that she is an awesome mom. She knows exactly what to do.  If anyone else would like to help us out and donate some funds to go towards food, housing, vet care, and gas to transport the babies to forever homes when they're ready, please send to saratech@[nospam]sympatico.ca (remove the [nospam].. that is just there to defeat the address-gathering software spammers use).  Thanks so much to all who donate!  You're helping far more than you could ever know. 

I will have some pics of every rescue rat tomorrow so you can see all the good the help you've given us is doing and who your donations are providing for.

Thanks so much, everyone, for the good thoughts, donations, and any potential adopters!

Sara, Missy and her 8 fuzzy bundles of energy, the 3 lads, and New Mom and her 6 wee surprises.

Wow! I just wanted to tell you that you are awesome what you are doing for all these ratties. I wish you all the best and I hope the ratties and newborns will find good homes!

I asked for an update on Canada Rat Adoption about this whole situation.  I see there is plenty of updates.
Can you give me a shout, please?
Email me at nessie1@sympatico . ca (remove spaces)
Thanks.

Missy the Rescue Rat's kids!

The older litter first!  Amazingly, these kids are all spoken for and have homes to go to.  Woo-hoo!  They're almost ready to go.. and I do believe I will cry when they do. 










And now Missy's new babies.  As far as I can count, there are 9, but they wriggle and squirm so much that it is hard to get an accurate count, especially given how protective and nippy Missy has become over guarding them.











Thanks so much to everyone who helped out!  You folks are genuine heroes!

Sara

If someone catches you stealing the rats can't the people helping you pay for the care and taking stolen rats from you get in trouble also?