Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / March 2008

OK, I just saw a preview for some new series titled "Unhitched" on
FOX.  In this clip, a rat jumps into a microwave, the door is shut,
and the microwave is turned on (it doesn't show how.) The next thing
we see is a group of men standing there with one commenting on how
the
rat was acting ..at least "for the first couple of minutes."

So here we have a "comedy" that wants to extract laughs from the
extreme suffering of an animal while several grown men stand by
watching it die in an excruciating way and do nothing. Having had
many
rats as pets over the years and knowing what great little critters
they are, this is especially jarring to me and upsetting. I'm a big
girl and have over the years worked with many victims of animal
cruelty so seeing the horrors done to animals is not new to me, but
for some reason the visual and implication of what happened but was
not shown realIy affected and horrified me.

I know there are always going to be those that might say it's just a
tv show, but come on already. You have
to draw the line somewhere and I'm not seeing how they could possibly
find humor in this situation, and to think they feel this is an
appropriate scene to use to draw viewers is inexplicable. I have the
sinking feeling that there will be a set of stupid teenagers that see
this and will decide to try this at home as well.  :-(