Politics

10,000 Birds Launches Alley Rat Allies

April 1, 2013 by Corey 8 Comments

After careful consideration of all of the enlightened arguments that have been made by those in favor of Trap-Neuter-Return for feral cats in recent blog posts, we here at 10,000 Birds have been completely convinced by their well-thought-out, logical, and airtight conclusions. The only issue we really have with the feral cat advocates is that they haven’t taken their arguments far enough. After all, if feral cats should be allowed to roam free without fear of poisoning, being trapped-and-euthanized, or otherwise coming to harm then why not give rats the same treatment?

So we announce the formation of a new, national organization dedicated to the preservation of the rat. Ladies and gentlemen, please throw all of your support behind Alley Rat Allies!

Like cats, the rat is not native to the vast majority of areas where it thrives. Like cats, the rat was introduced over much of the world by humans. Like cats, the rat is supremely adapted to living in a wide variety of climates and ecosystems. Like cats, the rat is admired and loved by many who keep them as pets. Like cats, the rat has been the victim of campaigns to make it the bad guy in terms of disease and damage wildlife. As for the former, diseases are spread by fleas, which also plague rats, which makes rats as much a victim as humans, and as for the latter, rats are clearly wildlife and how can wildlife be blamed for hurting wildlife? That is just a silly argument made by the rat haters to hide their lack of knowledge as to how biology works and to justify their horrific campaigns of rat-slaughter.

Rat

Rats are cute!

Imagine a world without rats! The garbage would be waist high in any urban area. It is rats that keep our streets clean and garbage-free. We would be overrun with cockroaches if it weren’t for rats because rats eating the garbage keeps cockroach populations from growing too large. (No one wants cockroaches crawling all over the place.) Without rats we wouldn’t have great films like The Secret of Nimh, Ratatouille, Willard, and Ben.

We will start fundraising shortly to get our first trap-neuter-release programs for rats going because while we think rats are great we understand that some people want to reduce their numbers. Trap-neuter-release is the only humane way to do this but it is expensive and will take a huge corps of volunteers to make it effective on a large scale. Please consider donating your time and money. And, above all, take the time today to explore our brand new website, which will be updating throughout the day today. It is by educating the public about how great rats are and how maligned they have been that we will find success in saving our furry friends.

Alley Rat Allies

Head on over to Alley Rat Allies and learn. Then share our fantastic new organization with your friends! You can also visit the Alley Rat Allies Facebook page, set up by some of our allies in this struggle for rats’ rights.

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.