A recent round of videos on the web this September shows a barbaric Chinese man torturing a pair of young wild rats under trial, reportedly for ‘destroying his money.’ The man sounds to be angrily scolding the rats, while some people in the background are laughing at the demise of these poor creatures.
Other sources tell a different story: that this video was taken from an unnamed restaurant, who put up a game for promotional purposes. The way this game works, according to the sources, is that rats are tied to a cold bottle of beer, while the visitors whip them with chopsticks. Then, they would smash the bottles, and the bottle to whom the surviving rat belongs, wins. That was rumored to be a gimmick to promote sales in the store.
Different sources tell conflicting stories. However, the moral here is that animals do not deserve any form of cruelty even if we think they are pests. It is also hypocritical that mankind does not think of the damages they inflict on the environment. If one does think about it, clearly, the greatest damages and disasters inflicted on nature were done by man. Does that not make us the greatest pest on earth?
It’s very unfortunate for pet rat owners like me to witness this. With our advocacy to contradict the negative image of rats here in the Philippines, the media is slowly beginning to portray a positive attitude toward rats as pets.
My name is Rattus Yu. I founded Pet Rats Philippines in September 2009 as an advocacy to counteract the negative image that pet rats face here in the Philippines. We hope you could join our cause by simply sharing this article. Please also see more Ratzilla videos over at our YouTube channel. Salamuch! =)
