 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / February 2006Is this true? illegal to breed rats in Alberta, Canada???
I got an email from Petsmart stating that the reason they do not have pet rats in their store here on Vancouver Island is because their supplier is in Alberta and it is illegal to breed rats there. True? If so does that mean nobody in the entire province can have a pet rat and breed it? let me know. curious, Sheila Yes, rats are banned in Alberta. No pets, no vets to treat them, no rats at all. I think they celebrate that their province has been rat free for over 50 years. I have heard of a couple of people trying to keep pet rats in Alberta over the years, and they have been able to keep them quiet. That is, until they get sick and there are no vets to treat them. All vets have to report any rats, and then the rats are confiscated and destroyed. There is a great rescue in BC, if you are looking for rats. I believe that they can even arrange transport to other areas. You can see them here: http://www.smallanimalrescue.org/ thanks vanessa....wow...I find that sooooo weird and creepy that laws like that are still so enforced. I have 6 wonderful rats!! 2 older girls -Whisper and Jayna 2 boys- Googe and Jeeves 2 younder girls- Alice and Trixie I'm new to this group...haven't had time to look around alot...but if there is a place to post pics I will thanks again for the sad info. Sheila > thanks vanessa....wow...I find that sooooo weird and creepy that laws > like that are still so enforced. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > thanks again for the sad info. > Sheila Hi. Would love to see your ratties! There is a free online album called webshots that a lot of us here use to share our pics. Here's a link: http://www.webshots.com/samplers/ Tracey > Yes, rats are banned in Alberta. No pets, no vets to treat them, no > rats at all. Do they have a significant wild rat population & does it cause much trouble? Forgive the ignorance but I don't know the climate or what other predators exist - would a fancy rat have much chance of surviving in the wild? I'm just trying to eliminate any real reasons they might have, before I add the entire province to my internal list of worthless places on earth (not that I'm judgemental or anything ;-( ) > I think they celebrate that their province has been rat free for over > 50 years. Using their own definition of a rat as something unpleasant, one assumes this means they now have no politicians either.  SignatureMichael m r o z a t u k g a t e w a y d o t n e t >> Yes, rats are banned in Alberta. No pets, no vets to treat them, no >> rats at all. [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Using their own definition of a rat as something unpleasant, one assumes > this means they now have no politicians either. LOL! Alberta and Saskatchewan are two provinces that depend on their farms and crops. They are our prairies. Alberta claims that the rats were eating their grains and causing them damage and lost revenue. But here's the thing, only rats are banned and killed, not mice, not prairie dogs... not anything else, just rats. My brother in law is from Sask. the neigbouring province and he grew up on a farm. Rats are not banned there yet. He told me their biggest problems were the field mice. He told me he never once saw a rat in their crops, just field mice munching away at the grain in the silos. Go figure... Joanne Owned by 15 rats I always loved that quote from Jurassic Park, when the scientists are telling Jeff Goldblum about how they only clone female dinosaurs, and he responds with 'Nature always finds a way'. I loved that. And boy, is it ever the truth. Whenever we think we have got the upper hand over nature, we always find out the complete opposite. For all we know, there is this mutant rat species developing in little pockets all over Alberta, that is going to be very much worse to them than the native rat species that they started out with. Or maybe another species is starting up, that will be much worse for the crops, whose numbers might have been controlled if they had rats keeping them in check. Mice are a good example, because rats will prey on mice. Maybe that will take another ten years, maybe another hundred years. I just don't think we should fool with things like that. I think we always end up paying a lot more in the end. We just can't or don't think that far into the future, we aren't very good about the whole consequences thing. > We just can't or don't think that far into the future, we aren't very > good about the whole consequences thing. LOL. Yes quite. Have you thought of politics? I'd love to hear those words from the mouth of a politician. You'd probably get my vote. SignatureMichael m r o z a t u k g a t e w a y d o t n e t Alberta is a farming province, lots of farms, lots of grain. They have eliminated rats for that reason, because of the damage they do to the grain crops. Rats means wild rats as well, although I have never truly believed that they can determine that they don't have one wild rat in the province. It's not like they are an island, they sit in the middle of other provinces and states that have rats. As much as I adore rats, and as much as I think they have just as much right to live happily on this earth as we do, I can understand why a province that exists primarily because of the crops they grow, wouldn't want them around. Again, I don't agree with the destruction, especially of pet rats, but I can appreciate their desire not to be overrun with rats in that province. I believe that there are states that ban certain types of rodents too. I think California bans gerbils, although I am not sure why, again it might be a crop issue. I believe that some states ban ferrets because of past experience with other wildlife being destroyed because of them. Australia bans hundreds of different species because of their bad experiences with imported, non native, species doing the destruction they have in that country. Rabbits, camels, etc. have destroyed entire ecosystems. We have a huge problem ourselves in Ontario since we introduced Zebra Mussels into our waterways to destroy another marine pest, and now we are up to our eyeballs in Zebra Mussels, they coat entire bottoms of ships, they clog up every water piping system from ships and land, and we have no way of getting rid of them. That was pretty stupid, I think. I know that there is a big difference between importing non native wildlife, and eliminating native wildlife, but it boils down to the same thing. Not wanting something to be destroyed. In Alberta's case it is crops. > I got an email from Petsmart stating that the reason they do not have > pet rats in their store here on Vancouver Island is because their [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Sheila I remember a story of a family moved there with their two pet rats. The neighbors "ratted" them out. The authorities came and removed the children's pet rats and had them pts. Most recently, one community got together with their shovels to proudly kill the fancy rats that some idiot let loose, there was a small colony of them. Saskatchewan was entertaining the idea of going the same route as Alberta with regards to rats. But I think that was quickly quashed when the rat community went public with their protests. Joanne Owned by 15 rats >> I got an email from Petsmart stating that the reason they do not have >> pet rats in their store here on Vancouver Island is because their [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Joanne > Owned by 15 rats That is so sad. Tracey > I remember a story of a family moved there with their two pet rats. The > neighbors "ratted" them out. The authorities came and removed the > children's pet rats and had them pts. I know it wouldn't be practical for 99.9% of cases, but would the owners get the chance to move out the region first, or do they just send special services in with smoke grenades & all? - For some reason I'm reminded of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, but that's probably a touch overly dramatic. SignatureMichael m r o z a t u k g a t e w a y d o t n e t >> I remember a story of a family moved there with their two pet rats. >> The neighbors "ratted" them out. The authorities came and removed the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > reminded of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, but that's probably a touch overly > dramatic. I'm not sure if they were given the choice to leave but the rats had to leave that immediately. The man had just been transferred there through his job. Yes, I wouldn't doubt, night gear, smoke bombs... sheesh... Joanne Owned by 15 rats |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.