Editor;
Re: Rodents along Beach Road (PM Mailbag Friday, 01 January 2016) – Several years ago city hall was to set baits to exterminate the majority of rats. The scheme was abandoned when the “Tree Huggers” said it was cruel as rats had feelings and had as much right to be here as us. Also it would kill innocent species.
As much I abhor rats they can sometimes be maligned.
The Great Plague in the 1300s where over 30 million people died was blamed on the black rat, and again for the bubonic plague of London in later years.
Recently a team of scientists in Oslo have come up with a new slant of this theory. They believe the Asian gerbil was the cause of this plague and not the European black rat. They found that fluctuations in the Asian climate was the cause of an explosion in the population of Asian great gerbils & marmots which harboured the plague bacteria. In the 1300s there were many Europeans using the Great Silk Road and a flea from an effected gerbil could find its way to Europe. These fleas passed on the disease to the local rats who did spread the disease but in fact they were not the cause of the pandemic. Also the disease could be transferred from a person to person without the flea bite.
I say go ahead with the baiting, there will be some collateral damage but s*#t happens.
Trivia: A nursery rhyme came about by this plague. So when you see a group of laughing children circling about & holding hands, it has a darker side:
Ring’ A Ring a Rosie, A pocket full A Posies
Atishoo, Atishoo, We all Fall Down.
Ryan Patricks
