BoozAlien t1_iui4870 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 2:40 PM

Reply to comment by New-Consideration142 in D.C.’s great rat migration — and how they survived during the pandemic by washingtonpost

Urban rats are maybe a little too large for the average cat. Some breeds of dogs, on the other hand, are extremely skillful at killing rats.

sarathecookie t1_iuij24d wrote on October 31, 2022 at 4:21 PM

Meh.

In my neighborhoot we have at least two 'cat ladies', who regularly feed a drove of feral cats who live here. There will be at least 10 cats at each 'feeding' everytime, more in breeding months.

Because of this, we see these feral cats with their sucessful rat hunt spoils, dangling from there mouths, every once in a while.

Even if they dont end up eating the whole thing, they definitely catch AND kill them regularly.

WitnessedStranger t1_iuj69i1 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:55 PM

Those ladies are feeding rats as much as they are cats by leaving food out.

CaptainObvious110 t1_iuia9dt wrote on October 31, 2022 at 3:22 PM

What kills me is that people don't just get dogs that are specially trained to kill rats and then let them do what they do and kill the doggone rats

WitnessedStranger t1_iuj6dza wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:56 PM

They'll probably end up ingesting rat poison pretty quick if they did that.

CaptainObvious110 t1_iuk97w0 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 11:37 PM

Which is where "specially trained" comes to play. Dogs are very intelligent and perfectly capable of being trained to do what they need to do. They have been doing so for thousands of years so it's reasonable that they can continue to do so now.

Think about it....There are dogs that are used in hunting of other animals. Along the way, they could get bitten by a poisonous snake, they could get injured or even killed by the animal that's being hunted.

So the possibility of danger to them is understood and accounted for. They have a purpose and are able to accomplish it.