Animal rescue volunteers are urgently seeking new homes for hundreds of pet rats discovered running wild in a condemned, filthy house in a New York City suburb.
A dedicated team of ten volunteers has spent the past two weeks rounding up the domesticated white rodents from the property in Rocky.
The Strong Island Animal Rescue League is racing to rescue approximately 30 more rats before a major winter storm hits the region. President Frankie Floridia estimates the group has already collected over 450 rats.
“What makes it challenging catching rats is that they’re in the walls, they’re everywhere,” Floridia said as he wrapped up a day trying to wrangle rodents at the home on Thursday. “This is a unique situation. We haven’t had something like this ever.”
The group has been working with a local animal hospital to nurse the rats back to health.
Hundreds of rescued rats are suffering from a range of ailments, including mite infestations, eye infections, and bite wounds, according to Erica Kutzing, vice president of the rescue group. Despite their poor condition, only around 10 have tragically been euthanised so far.
Over 200 have already found permanent or temporary homes through fostering or adoption by local families. Ms Kutzing also commended rescue organisations in Virginia, Connecticut, and other states for taking in over 50 of the animals, with volunteers now working to safely transport these rats to their new out-of-state homes.
Despite their often-maligned reputation, Ms Kutzing highlighted the compassion shown: "A lot of people find them to be less desirable animals or pets, and kind of outcasts of the animal world. And so when you love the underdog and you care about the underdog, you tend to be a kinder person."
With more than 200 rats still awaiting placement, the group encourages prospective owners to adopt two or three, as rats are not solitary creatures. "These rats deserve a second chance," added Floridia. "They’re clean animals and can be friendly, like a hamster. They make wonderful pets."
Ms Kutzing clarified that the rodent infestation appears to have been a case of circumstances spiralling rapidly out of a homeowner’s control, rather than a deliberate breeding operation. She explained that rats reproduce quickly, giving birth to litters of almost a dozen babies roughly every 20 days and reaching maturity in mere weeks, despite their relatively short two-to-three-year lifespan.
“It snowballs fast, so if people are struggling with something like hoarding, for example, it’s going to send you deeper into that hole,” Kutzing said.
The homeowner, meanwhile, has been charged with animal cruelty, neglect and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police say a three-year-old child had been living at the house for at least several weeks in unsanitary conditions where the floors were covered in rat feces and urine, and rodents were freely roaming around.
The homeowner pleaded not guilty at her arraignment earlier this month, according to prosecutors. Her lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
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