Would you sign a petition to save... rats ?
By topffer
@topffer (42156)
France
December 21, 2016 5:02am CST
I find today an online petition to save the rats of the Champ-de-Mars. The Champ-de-Mars is the large park starting at the feet of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. So, what is the problem ? Since a few months there are rats in this public garden and the city of Paris has decided on December 8th to close the park for 2 weeks to kill the rats.
This petition was put online on December 10th and is called "Stop the genocide of the rats" Maybe the word "genocide" is a bit strong for rats, but it sets the pace of this long text. I cannot resist to translate a few lines :
[i]"The phobia of rats (and probably of its tail, put to a rat a pretty plume tail and we have a squirrel that we love), the phobia of rats then, is a social phobia like the phobia of spiders and we kill mercilessly these unfortunate pointed by the society, in need of scapegoats, to be eradicated.
We see today treated the same way, pollution which is killing thousands of human beings (...) and rats, who are killing nobody.
(...)
I am a pedo-psychologist and horrified by man's cruelty. It is backfiring on him, for we pertain a day to the genocide group. For ISIS, it's clear, we are the ones to e rat dicate.
Open the eyes and stop this gross operation and a bad example for children."
[/i]
Guess what ? This petition has already received more than 21 000 signatures. Reading a few comments, I learned how rats are smart, and that we should better distribute them contraceptive pills
.
I have no phobia for rats, but if I had rats at home I would kill them mercilessly if the cat was not doing it, and I understand that the city of Paris wants to do the same in a touristic place like the Eiffel Tower.
What is your opinion about protecting rats ?
Picture : Photographic montage by me showing the Champ-de-Mars during the Paris world's fair in 1900.
.
I have no phobia for rats, but if I had rats at home I would kill them mercilessly if the cat was not doing it, and I understand that the city of Paris wants to do the same in a touristic place like the Eiffel Tower.
What is your opinion about protecting rats ?
Picture : Photographic montage by me showing the Champ-de-Mars during the Paris world's fair in 1900.
Animaux - Signez la pétition : Stoppez le génocide des rats.
18 people like this
17 responses
@LadyDuck (458106)
• Switzerland
21 Dec 16
Mice are cute, rats not so much, but they are both smart animals. Rats bring plenty of diseases, it is not true that they do not kill people. I propose to send 10 rats to each one of those who signed the petition. They want the rats alive, well, they have to take care of them.
4 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 Dec 16
Due to the success of this petition, the city will not have a rat for any signer
. Many signers have pet rats, but a domestic white rat is not a wild rat, and I think that they would not be satisfied with their new pets
. They can bring diseases, but there is no disease known in Paris actually that a rat can bring. It would perhaps change if the city was letting their number increase instead of killing them times to times.
. Many signers have pet rats, but a domestic white rat is not a wild rat, and I think that they would not be satisfied with their new pets. They can bring diseases, but there is no disease known in Paris actually that a rat can bring. It would perhaps change if the city was letting their number increase instead of killing them times to times.1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 Dec 16
@LadyDuck I have learned long ago that a rat can bite. When I was a kid I saw one eating something on the pavement a morning when I was going to school. I put a foot near it to frighten it, and it jumped to bite my shoe. The more afraid of us was not the rat.
.2 people like this
@youless (112113)
• Guangzhou, China
22 Dec 16
I learned this news but I thought it was a fake. But now I realize it is true. It is unbelievable. I don't know what to say. But I will not sign on it. I don't like rats at all and I am very scared of them. They also look horrible and ugly in my opinion. They also spread the virus. Sorry, they are not adorable creatures for me and I don't protect them.
2 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Dec 16
Many signers are owning pet rats, and perhaps they do not realize that these wild rats are not pets. There is actually no disease in Paris that can carry a rat, but it is not a reason to let their population increase, and I do not think that many tourists are happy to see rats near the Eiffel Tower. It these people want to adopt these rats and take care of them, the city can capture the rats instead of killing them.
.1 person likes this
@marguicha (215441)
• Chile
22 Dec 16
It seems that just as human stupidity has no limits, it also has a lot of followers. Rats are dangerous as they carry lots of infections. And I´m sure that, if left alone, they could destroy the Champ-de-Mars in a few months.
It´s a pity that the web can be used for this.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (215441)
• Chile
22 Dec 16
@topffer It was a documentary. That´s what made it so horrible. The rats were big as they were those gray country rats.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Dec 16
I tend to respect any opinion but this petition is extreme, and what is surprising is that it is a successful petition. They tell that there is no disease in Paris actually that can be carried by a rat, but I think that it could change if the population of rats was increasing too much. They can cause a lot of damage in a garden, and it would increase the maintenance cost for the city.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Dec 16
@marguicha It was a documentary or a fiction ? It looks unbelievable. I have only had mice in the past, and I got rid of them before they had eaten the full house. I would not like to have any rodent invading my home. I do not think it can happen, as my cat is a good hunter, too good when it comes to birds
.
. I would not like to have any rodent invading my home. I do not think it can happen, as my cat is a good hunter, too good when it comes to birds.1 person likes this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
21 Dec 16
Rats. I would not like to kill them but I would not want them around me either they make me shudder. Some of them here are the size of big Rabbits.
Difficult for me that one as I would not want to see them die but at the same time for our health and well being hmm. I would not sign to save them unless they were planning to kill them in a really bad way.
I have seen Pigeons die in the Street as they had poisoned them. There has to be a better solution at least I think so but not sure what. Have been through Paris many times and its always so clean too never seen a Rat as such.
1 person likes this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
23 Dec 16
@topffer
What if they found a way for them not to be able to be on rubbish tips and easy to get at food and make some kind of birth control system where they could not breed so quickly. That way they would not be killed or have to be.
The worst thing I find here is that they are trying to get rid of the Storks much the same way. However volunteers have taken their nests away and put them in other safe places thank goodness for a bit of sanity.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
23 Dec 16
@lovinangelsinstead21 Storks? Everyone would be happy to have a stork nest at the top of a chimney in France, Spanish people are a bit crazy
. It reminds me a good memory. I rented a house in the countryside in the 80's, and a couple of chickadees decided to install their nest in my mailbox. The mailman stopped to put mail in it, they opened the box to took a photo of the nest with the babies chickadees and... the photo of my mailbox was in a post office calendar the year after.
? Everyone would be happy to have a stork nest at the top of a chimney in France, Spanish people are a bit crazy. It reminds me a good memory. I rented a house in the countryside in the 80's, and a couple of chickadees decided to install their nest in my mailbox. The mailman stopped to put mail in it, they opened the box to took a photo of the nest with the babies chickadees and... the photo of my mailbox was in a post office calendar the year after.1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
23 Dec 16
Rats are rarely outdoors during the day, people were viewing them at sunset and during the night on the Champ-de-Mars. They put poisoned food in their tunnels and are closing the issues for what I read. Here pigeons are sedated and moved elsewhere, they are only killed by accident if they decide to sleep on a street.
1 person likes this
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
25 Jan 17
Somehow the animation "Ratatouille" comes to mind 
.
Where is the Pied Piper when you need him?
I just don't know . . . I would be alarmed if there was an infestation of disease carrying rats around. Just how many rats are they talking about? I understand the whole save-the-animals crusade - I get that, I really do . . . but if it's matter of public health safety, then I'd have to say "something" has to be controlled before it gets out if control.
.
Where is the Pied Piper when you need him?
I just don't know . . . I would be alarmed if there was an infestation of disease carrying rats around. Just how many rats are they talking about? I understand the whole save-the-animals crusade - I get that, I really do . . . but if it's matter of public health safety, then I'd have to say "something" has to be controlled before it gets out if control.1 person likes this
.@topffer (42156)
• France
25 Jan 17
I cannot tell anything about the number ; I have looked again and it has not been given. They have been killed by the city during Christmas school holidays. Many people having signed this petition have pet rats, and they do not realize that wild rats are different. I read that there was not a disease in Paris actually that could be carried by rats, but it is not a reason to let them proliferate in public parks and gardens. I love animals, but I except rats and mice, and I and my cat would not admit them at home.
.1 person likes this
@crossbones27 (48427)
• Mojave, California
21 Dec 16
Actually will not sign any petitions soon. They all fail. Samantha Bee or what ever her name crew did a little study and found all liberal studies fail. The last petition I signed was good it worked. Bill Maher got an answer and ended up interviewing the president.
I am no liberal but tend to lean towards their side more. Seems like common sense actually, but conservatives beat them every time. .Moral of the story is facts do not matter anymore. Mindsets only thing that does. Change of mindsets needed, only if world falls apart. That is pretty much the only thing that is going to change minds. People are set in this we our out for ourselves mindset.
2 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 Dec 16
I would not sign for rats, but I have signed a few petitions to keep historical buildings that would have been destroyed without these petitions, so they work sometimes. We have also now "European initiatives", they are kind of petitions, and if they receive more than 1 million signers dispatched in at least 10 countries, they are discussed by the European Parliament. The first one was to give a right to water to any citizen, and since it we have had a law in my country to forbid to water companies to cut water if they are not paid by people in need. It is a positive result coming from a petition.
Mindsets are changing without the fall of the world. I do not think that a petition for rats would have had such a number of signers 20 years ago
.
.1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 Dec 16
@crossbones27 There is only an average 2 European Initiatives submitted to the Parliament every year, and they are not forced to follow them, but it is good when something coming from the citizens is discussed by the politicians. Any petition can play a role I think.
1 person likes this
@crossbones27 (48427)
• Mojave, California
21 Dec 16
@topffer I wish were more reasonable people here like that. Good for you guys and hope it catches on .
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45123)
• Canada
23 Dec 16
I can't say that I love rats! If they don't bother me, I won't bother them.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 Dec 16
Paris is lacking of eagles and snakes, and there is not a lot of cats near the Eiffel Tower.
This petition has already certainly received more signatures than there are rats in this park, maybe the city should better capture the rats to offer them to the signers.
@simone10 (54189)
• Louisville, Kentucky
24 Dec 16
@topffer I feel exactly the same way. I have heard of a lot of people who have rats as pets and absolutely love them, saying they make the best pets. But when it comes to wild rats, it's just not the same thing. They are destructive as well as disease ridden.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Dec 16
Rats carry disease such as malaria, will attack, are destructive. They are vermin.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
21 Dec 16
@JohnRoberts I thought at it when I read this petition. Some animal lovers are always ready to defend any pest
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.@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Dec 16
@topffer Rats carried the plague in the old days.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16532)
• China
21 Dec 16
It is beyond me why they signed a petition to save those rats.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38657)
• Midland, Michigan
22 Dec 16
[i]This is kind of funny actually and I like your ratification message too. I don't understand why your use of the italics code didn't work here unless it's not possible to do more than one paragraph, or maybe because you have the parenthesis in the middle of it?
I will test the two paragraph idea to see if it works for me or not.[/i] I don't have any phobias for rats either, but if those or mice were in my house, I'd be sure to find someone to kill them.
I read another article about Mountain Lions that deborah-diane wrote recently and they've been killing farm animals recently and there's much discussion about eliminating one of them for that reason. I was thinking while reading yours that they should just ship all those rats to California for those Mountain lions to eat instead.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Dec 16
I rarely use italic or bold, and I also do not understand why it did not worked. It should not be stopped until the end italic symbol, I think it is a bug somewhere.
I have nothing against mice and rats as long as they are not in my house, and I understand that the city of Paris do not want rats in a touristic public garden. After that, if animal lovers want to take care of them, the city can capture them instead of killing them, and everyone will be happy.
.1 person likes this
