HELP! Resuce Situation in Kentucky

[3pidemic]

(If this is the wrong place to post this I'm sorry mods, I just want to try and help these little guys out. The guy is trying to find homes for his rats, since he knows that he can't afford to feed/vet them, but isn't trying very hard to rectify the situation.)

I come down to visit my dad for the holiday and I find out something horrible. A friend of the family is a retired feeder breeder, my boyfriend and I actually got a pair of rats from him back in Febuary and at that time he was taking care of his rats really well, had a nice set up for them and they were healthy.

Since then he's had to move and for some reason can't keep take care of his rats anymore. So now they are kept oustide, in Kentucky, during the summer where the temperature has been reaching ninety degrees with eighty to ninety percent humidty on a daily basis, in wood and plexiglass tanks. I haven't seen the rats myself, but according to my dad and his girlfriend he has about twenty+ hairless rats in these tanks on his porch and they are not in good shape at all. From what I've been told these rats have bite wounds, absecesses, URIs, eye infections, are malnourished and god knows what else wrong with them. He's admitted that he can't afford to keep his rats anymore, but doesn't know what to do with them. My dad and his girlfriend took in one of the older males that was in better shape than the others and are treating him for what they've been told is a chonic eye infection and an abcess, but neither I nor they have the room or the funds to take on twenty+ sick rats.

I've found two rescues close-ish to the area (one about two hours away in Louisville and one about four hours away in Indy) that I'm going to get in touch with. I've also posted on ratforum and the livejournal Ratties community to see if anyone can help. But if anyone here would be able to help out these guys, please don't hesitate. I'll probably find out more details over the next couple of days (exact number of rats, conditions, etc), but I'm really worried about them and the heat. If anyone can help out please, please get in contact with me these babies need to get out of this situation ASAP.

[Leona]

I'm in KY and I should be able to help out with a few, I can't take all 20 of course, but I can take a few. I'm so sorry they are in those nasty conditions, I just can't believe it. It makes me so angry, where exactly at in KY I'm in Corbin, which I believe is roughly 3 hours away from Louisville and 1.5 hours away from Lexington

[3pidemic]

Right now the rats and I are in Richmond, which I think is maybe about a forty-five minutes or so north of Corbin. They will need to see a vet and be socialized, and as far as I know they're mostly older rats. The one that my dad and his girlfriend took is responding really well to antibiotic for his eye infections and his abcess is clearing up. He's also not agressive, just skidish, but he's a good older boy.

I've been talking with the people at the Happy Ending rescue in Indy and I'll be getting in touch with the Furrbutt Farms rescue in Louisville tomorrow hopefully.   

[Leona]

Richmond is not too far at all, it is about forty-five minutes and I go there a lot - like once every two weeks, and my sister lives in Berea. I can take them to the vet, as well. Just trying to help

[3pidemic]

I talked to the guy just a little bit ago and appearantly he only has eight rats left, from thirty-six. Which makes me really wonder what happened to the other rats as he said he hadn't found any homes for any of them just prior to that. So the numbers aren't quite as staggering as they were a week ago.

Are you heading up to Richmond/Berea anytime this week? If you want you can email me at sadisticrequiem (at) gmail (dot) com and we can work something out.