Rat-Tastic! 5 Fascinating Facts About Rats—and How YOU Can Help Them
Back rat it again! April 4 isn’t just another day—it’s World Rat Day, a chance to recognize these animals for the intelligent, social, sensitive individuals they are.
Rats care for their families, love to cuddle, and have unique personalities—yet millions of them suffer in laboratories, where experimenters use and kill them in painful, pointless tests. Countless others endure slow, agonizing deaths on glue traps, stuck to sticky boards with no escape.
Every rat is someone. This World Rat Day, learn about these remarkable rodents and how YOU can help them.
1. A group of rats is called a “mischief.”
Rats are deeply community-oriented, sticking together in tight-knit groups in which they forage, nest, and groom one another. And if they’re ever up to any “mischief,” it’s playful bonding with their loved ones.
2. Rats giggle.
All work and no play? Not for these rambunctious rodents! When they’re chasing, teasing, or tumbling with their friends, they chuckle in tiny, high-pitched chirps that are inaudible to human ears.
3. They have empathy.
Rats are highly emotionally intelligent and can sense when others are stressed, scared, or in need of help. They comfort one another, share food, and even put themselves at risk to free their friends from danger.
4. They’re doting mothers.
Rat moms are attentive and devoted to their babies. They carefully build cozy nests, nurse and groom their pups, and keep them close. In The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights, PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk writes about a woman who recalled watching a mother rat groom her babies and teach them to shell the peanuts that the woman left out for them and to dart and run if danger approached. The mother rat dipped the babies’ paws in water and smoothed the fur around their ears and faces while they obediently sat still with their arms around their mother’s neck.
5. They’re fastidiously clean.
If you’ve heard the phrase “rat’s nest” used to describe a tangled mess, the opposite is actually true. Rats are meticulous groomers who spend hours cleaning their fur and carefully maintaining their nests, keeping their living spaces tidy and comfortable.
Ready to Fight for Rats’ Rights? Squeak Up!
Rats trapped in animal testing facilities, the pet trade, and cruel glue traps need your help.
Rats feel love, pain, and fear just as dogs and cats do—but unlike them, rats aren’t protected by even the meager provisions of the federal Animal Welfare Act, which governs the treatment of animals in laboratories. Because mice and rats are excluded from the law, experimenters don’t have to provide pain relief or even track how many they kill. Help end this torment:
