In response to Denise Lawson’s letter ‘These ain’t no kittens’ (Fourways Review, week ending 16 May)
Rats are mammals, as are humans, and like all animals, have incredible instinctive behaviours way beyond the comprehension of the average human.
What the world needs at this time is some evidence of the intellectual progression of mankind, to embrace the wonders of all species of nature, and to develop a more accepting tolerance of creatures great and small.
In this day, to label rats as vermin is to demonstrate an ignorant discriminatory superiority complex. I would challenge such thinkers to examine the source of their hatred toward innocent creatures and assess whether it is possible to alter perspectives… that not every rat carries disease, not every dog carries rabies, not every human carries TB.
Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for the plague, infects squirrels – but do we then label them vermin? When a human is infected with the organism, does that make the human vermin?
Cholera is a poverty-related disease caused by a little bacterium, but we have no four-legged vector to blame in this case.
And perhaps if the squalor was addressed in certain places from shopping centre backyards to residential townships, the rat populations would head for the pristine open veld. The filth comes first. It is not the rat’s doing.
