# Another huge rat rescue



## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

I know it may seem like it over the last week or so, but I really don't generally make a habbit of being involved in MASSIVE rat rescues. I think perhaps there's something in the air at the moment. We kind of knew this one was going to happen before I helped Lyn (Raunds Rat Rescue) with her rescue though.

This one has history, so to some of you it may sound a little familiar. In February myself and Mike and Manda from MnM Rescue were asked by a man in Tipton (who we shall call Simon) to take all of his rats away. He told us that there were 60+ rats, so we arranged for many rescues around the country to help us with spaces. When we got to the mans house he surrendered 37. We entered his house (it's one of those houses where the front door goes straight into the living room); on the living room table were three 15" hamster cages with rats in them. One cage had 3 adult females. One cage had 16 adult males. So math tells me that the other cage had 18 rats in it; they ranged in age from approximately 10 days to fully grown adults. All the adult females in this cage were pregnant, and oddly enough there was no mother for the ten day old babies. 'Simon' wouldn't let us through to the rest of the house. We came away convinced that he had many many more rats, and feeling .. well .. basically .. used!

It was wierd. The baby rats were easy to handle. The adolescent rats were mostly ok, but a bit skittish. The adult rats were absolutely impossible. I cannot be certain, but my theory is that he was breeding them because he liked the babies; once they got bigger he got bored of them, leading to the adults being terrified. I brought some back here before they were transported to other rescues. Three of them became drastically ill extremely quickly. All three died, under the care of three of my vets. The conclusion drawn was that they were so inbred that their immune systems were severely impaired; upon moving into a new environment they encountered new pathogens which a healthy rat wouldn't have had any problem with, and it basically killed them  One further boy came down ill in the same manner, but Emma from Rodent Rescue (Polegate) succeeded in bringing him through the illness :thumbsup:

Soooooo, we were not overly surprised when 'Simon' phoned Mike a few weeks ago, saying that he needed him to take away some rats again. He said that he had collected them for him for the rescue. Having seen the conditions the previous lot were in, and suspecting that there were more in worse conditions, I called the RSPCA. I was somewhat surprised to have a call back from an RSPCA officer / inspector (I get the two confused) on his way to the property a few days later. He just wanted to clarify a few points. I heard no more. 'Simon' was asking Mike to go in and get the rats, presuming that the RSPCA had decided it wasn't too bad, a date and time was agreed upon. Just in case it made a difference I called the RSPCA again (and got some useless jobsworth on the phone this time), to see if they did have a preference as to what happened. She was beyond unhelpful. Yet, the inspector / officer did indeed contact Mike, and agreed to come with us today.

Sooooo .. TODAY ...

We arrived at 'Simon''s house. And, once again, he had a selection of small cages in the living room ready for us to take away. He had told Mike proudly that he'd got some larger cages this time. Well .. this is true .. they were larger .. by about two or three inches in each direction; still waaay inadequate! I can't remember what was in all of the cages, but there was a particular one with a green base that had does of a variety of ages in it. The base of the cage was approx three inches deep, all three inches were filled with ... ummmm ... pooh??? Shredded newspaper, what appeared to have once been fabric, a lot of pooh, rich tea biscuits, and goodness knows what else. After half an hour of sitting in the property, this stuff started to move, and a baby rat (about ten days old) emerged from underneath.

It all took a while. The RSPCA inspector / officer wanted to count how many rats there were. He counted the ones in the living room, and then asked if he could see the ones in the rest of the house. He knew there were more as he'd already been there. He was also buying time, as he wanted his superior to arrive before anyone actually did anything.

When she arrived, they had a private talk in the back of the house. We beleive that he was told in no uncertain terms that he is allowed to keep five rats and one guinea pig, he has to have his cats neutered, and that if he takes in further animals he will be prosecuted. He told the RSPCA that he was running a rescue.

Sooooo, we piled up the RSPCA van, my car, and Mike and Mandas car with the cages from the house (one good thing about small cages I guess, is that you can fit more of them in a car). The inspector / officer took the ones in the van back to the RSPCA centre to be health checked before bringing them back over to Mike and Mandas. This gave us some time to sort out half the rats before the other half arrived really.

It was horrible. Many of the cages were similar in condition to the one with the green base. Many of them were so rusted that you'd get tetanus from them. A lot of doors on the cages were padlocked closed (presumably the rats were getting out). The cages were overcrowded. As we went through them it became apparant that in most cages he'd basically put one male, and a group of females. In some cages there were individual rats on their own .. the reason for this was not apparant. So to summarise what I can remember of what arrived at Mike and Mandas:
- 124 rats in total
- 11 of which are obviously pregnant rats
- one pregnant rat with no left front arm
- many many tail injuries; one large males tail is 1cm in length, and one baby girls tail is bent in three places
- one young rat's leg has been broken, but healed with the radius and ulna on top of the humerus, and a huge abscess around them (I'm presuming rats have the same bones in their forearms as we do).
- some rats so covered in lice that they've developed pneumonia due to anaemia (one of whom died in my arms)

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things.

They are absolutely amazing rats though. Yes, some of them are difficult to handle, but they'll come round. I don't stand a chance of describing all the varities there are, but a sample would involve:
- silver fawn hooded rex (pneumonia)
- agouti capped with blaze (stunnningly beautiful .. and lactating)
- blazed siamese (sort of)
- cinnamon capped with blaze

I've not brought any home. I've basically been transport, sexer and pregnancy-identifier lol. Mike and Manda are absolutely heroes, and deserve some seriously good karma for this.

To Mike and Manda; :thumbup:

(For anyone not familiar with them: mnm-rat-rescue)

I'm showered and hopefully louse free, so night night,

Nim


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

It really does sound like there is something in the air what with all the rats that you have helped rescue with Lyn/Manda/Mike and also the welsh mice rescue. How anyone can keep an animal in such conditions is beyond me - forget limiting them to the number of pets they are allowed to have, the goverment should give the rescue organisations the ability to impose a life time ban and ensure that this is followed up in order to prevent these people ever having animals again! Please keep us updated as to how they all get on Nim and pass on my thoughts to those you are helping - if I'd been nearer I would have offered to help!


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

zany_toon said:


> It really does sound like there is something in the air what with all the rats that you have helped rescue with Lyn/Manda/Mike and also the welsh mice rescue. How anyone can keep an animal in such conditions is beyond me - forget limiting them to the number of pets they are allowed to have, the goverment should give the rescue organisations the ability to impose a life time ban and ensure that this is followed up in order to prevent these people ever having animals again! Please keep us updated as to how they all get on Nim and pass on my thoughts to those you are helping - if I'd been nearer I would have offered to help!


Awww thank you. So where exactly is your padded room? 

I think the RSPCA, through the judicial system, has the power to which you refer. I don't think anyone other than the RSPCA can take people to court over animal cruelty though. The problem I guess is that the majority of rescues are unregistered, except among ourselves, so anyone could ban someone just because they didn't like them. For example, today the lady of the house reported someone local to her, to the RSPCA, because she thought that person was the person who reported them. :rolleyes5:

Nim


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## metame (Sep 25, 2009)

oh bless them., poor things 


you guys are all amazing and doing a fantastic job!


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

You need a medal Nim, poor rats I just wish I could help but once I get my two boys from the other rescue I will be full up, I hope they all find good loving homes soon.


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

metame said:


> oh bless them., poor things
> 
> you guys are all amazing and doing a fantastic job!


Thank you


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

thedogsmother said:


> You need a medal Nim, poor rats I just wish I could help but once I get my two boys from the other rescue I will be full up, I hope they all find good loving homes soon.


Don't you worry. You're doing absolutely fantastically by homing two of the boys from Lyn.

When I first started keeping rats I sometimes heard about huge rescues, and wished that I could help, either financially or by rehoming some of the ratties, but I couldn't do either. Now that I'm on the other end, I'd like to say to anyone who feels regret in that way; don't worry! Firstly, just talking about what's happening with other rat lovers is helping by raising more awareness. And secondly, you never know what the future may hold for you ... ie, had someone told me ten years ago that I would have been handling 124 rats yesterday I'd have thought they were crazy lol.

So .. thank you for reading 

Nim


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## Guest (May 2, 2010)

wow Nim you and your friends really are amazing 


how awful though that once again these wonderful animals have been treat so appalingly.


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

Shamen said:


> wow Nim you and your friends really are amazing
> 
> how awful though that once again these wonderful animals have been treat so appalingly.


Thank you  My everso encouraging husband :arf: said to me yesterday that this guy must just be the tip of the iceberg. He's essentially saying that what we've done is pointless and doesn't make a difference.

Thankfully I happened to speak to the RSPCA bloke later on, so asked his perspective ... no, he doesn't think there are many like this guy, with rats at least. It does happen, but hopefully we can help when it happens.

Stoopid husband. :angry:


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

Nim said:


> Thank you  My everso encouraging husband :arf: said to me yesterday that this guy must just be the tip of the iceberg. He's essentially saying that what we've done is pointless and doesn't make a difference.
> 
> Thankfully I happened to speak to the RSPCA bloke later on, so asked his perspective ... no, he doesn't think there are many like this guy, with rats at least. It does happen, but hopefully we can help when it happens.
> 
> Stoopid husband. :angry:


Saving just one rat from a life like that would make it not pointless, tell him to behave or Ill hit him with my handbag when he brings my rattys:lol:


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

thedogsmother said:


> Saving just one rat from a life like that would make it not pointless, tell him to behave or Ill hit him with my handbag when he brings my rattys:lol:


Ooo I like your thinking hehehehe 

I was thinking about it actually; I might bring them myself. I could drop him at work, then have a wonder around your part of the world, as I've never been up there. We'll see how things are when it comes to the time


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

Nim said:


> Ooo I like your thinking hehehehe
> 
> I was thinking about it actually; I might bring them myself. I could drop him at work, then have a wonder around your part of the world, as I've never been up there. We'll see how things are when it comes to the time


Oooh it would be lovely to meet you, and your oh could tell everyone at work that you are his chaufeur :thumbup:.


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

thedogsmother said:


> Oooh it would be lovely to meet you, and your oh could tell everyone at work that you are his chaufeur :thumbup:.


Lol .. he's scared of my driving


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

Woohoo ... they're in the paper!!!

Homes sought for rescued rats « Shropshire Star


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

OMG even more poor ratties, you guys do such an amazing job. We have just taken on 2 rescue boys as well as the 8 girls & they are settling in well. I wish I could take more but OH has said a very firm 'no', even when we get the Explorer


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

simplysardonic said:


> OMG even more poor ratties, you guys do such an amazing job. We have just taken on 2 rescue boys as well as the 8 girls & they are settling in well. I wish I could take more but OH has said a very firm 'no', even when we get the Explorer


Yeah my oh says that, have you tried really really sulking and having a tantrum, that seems to work for me:lol:.


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

Short notice, but if anyone gets this in time:
BBC - Shropshire - TV & Radio

They're on Radio Shropshire at 6:20 (link above).

Nim


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

simplysardonic said:


> OMG even more poor ratties, you guys do such an amazing job. We have just taken on 2 rescue boys as well as the 8 girls & they are settling in well. I wish I could take more but OH has said a very firm 'no', even when we get the Explorer


That's ok. You've given a lovely home to the two rescue boys you have there 

My husband put a firm foot down too. They have a habbit of doing that huh


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## zany_toon (Jan 30, 2009)

Nim said:


> Awww thank you. So where exactly is your padded room?
> 
> I think the RSPCA, through the judicial system, has the power to which you refer. I don't think anyone other than the RSPCA can take people to court over animal cruelty though. The problem I guess is that the majority of rescues are unregistered, except among ourselves, so anyone could ban someone just because they didn't like them. For example, today the lady of the house reported someone local to her, to the RSPCA, because she thought that person was the person who reported them. :rolleyes5:
> 
> Nim


My padded room is near Glasgow


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

zany_toon said:


> My padded room is near Glasgow


Ummm yes .. quite a distance lol.


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## zoeeoo (Aug 17, 2009)

i could of took about 3 males or female but too far unless someone doing a travel down i put the link on my facebook soo if anyone want to rehome a rattie its there.


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

zoeeoo said:


> i could of took about 3 males or female but too far unless someone doing a travel down i put the link on my facebook soo if anyone want to rehome a rattie its there.


Thank you, that's very helpful :thumbup:

Where abouts are you? (PM me if you prefer to keep it private).

Nim


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

We have pictures!!! Some of these people already have homes to go to already, but I thought you might all like to say hello anyway:

Here's the album: Tipton Rats pictures by soshonika - Photobucket

And some samples:



























It's so good to see them looking so healthy, in clean surroundings, and gathered around a bowl of healthy food. You cannot imagine the huge journey these little guys have been through to get where they are.

Nim


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

Nim said:


> We have pictures!!! Some of these people already have homes to go to already, but I thought you might all like to say hello anyway:
> 
> Here's the album: Tipton Rats pictures by soshonika - Photobucket
> 
> ...


Once again you have done such amazing work with these little ratties. Love all the blazed & capped ratties:001_wub:


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

simplysardonic said:


> Once again you have done such amazing work with these little ratties. Love all the blazed & capped ratties:001_wub:


They're some really amazing ones aren't they! I'd love to know what the marking on the one eating from the bowl in the bottom picture is. Some sort of mismark siamese I'd guess; beautiful whatever.

Poor Manda is exhausted; cleaning and scrubbing cages every day, nursing the sick ones, fielding applications. It's a shame rescue doesn't pay.

Nim


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

He (she?) looks similar to my rescue hooded Siamese boy, with a little blaze & milky coffee stripe down his back


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## Nim (Jan 4, 2009)

simplysardonic said:


> He (she?) looks similar to my rescue hooded Siamese boy, with a little blaze & milky coffee stripe down his back


I'm not sure if it's a boy or girl either lol. There are no clues either way in the pic lol. If I remember correctly there was one boy and one girl like that.

I wondered if it might be a blaze actually. A blazed siamese huh. There are A LOT of blazed ratties in that rescue, so it wouldn't surprise me.


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