Berlin's Poor Should Catch Rats, Says Politician

[Zywiec]

A Berlin politician has come under fire for suggesting that poor people should be encouraged to catch rats by offering them €1 per dead rodent. The intriguing idea entails some gnawing practical problems and has been called "inhuman and cynical".

-snip-

The idea poses some practical problems too. Killing rats by hitting them with shovels or kicking them to death would break animal protection laws. Besides, rats are fast and much tougher to catch than returnable bottles, much sought after by poor people who retrieve deposits on them at supermarkets.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,596705,00.html

I wonder if this will be proposed here soon?

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. I dare say that Washington has more rats than Berlin

That is not to say that they should be killed and eaten... I'm sure that would make everyone sick... you know what I mean... :)

[Obamanaut]

5. I would suspect as nasty as Orc flesh. nt

[Fumesucker]

8. Politician, the other white meat..

[Deep13]

2. "...would break animal protection laws. "

The Germans have lost their minds. They're fucking rats! Horrid, disgusting, aggressive, disease-ridden little monsters. So they can only kill these fucking things humanely? WTF?

[crikkett]

4. America is becoming such a creepy place.

Thanks for helping.

[Deep13]

11. The problem, of course, is the dogmatic insistence on moral equivalency of...

...people with all animals, even dangerous ones like rats. Once one accepts the truth of that irrational premise, then the agenda of PETA or ALF become logical consequences of that dogma. Under that logic, pest control becomes murder. It is similar to anti-abortion activists who insist that a zygote has a soul and, therefore, is an actual person.

I think it is safe to say that such people who insist that a rat is the moral equivalent of a person have never had to live in places where they were coming out of the toilet at night and chewing on ones baby's fingers.

As a side note, I am not expressing any opinion on whether it is a good idea or not to pay homeless people to hunt rats. It seems pretty bizarre, but on the other hand, I am an "outside the box" kind of guy.

:)

[crikkett]

12. For the sake of argument

psychopaths and sociopaths tend to start out by abusing animals. So teaching people (children) to abhor animal abuse makes the monsters among us stand out even more.

In Germany's not too distant past, the ruling class indeed equate humans with rats and then called for extermination. So this law you call silly could be in place for practical reasons.

I think its dangerous to encourage people to hunt rats without proper safeguards. They carry rabies and other nasty disease, and if someone chose to use a missile weapon, poor marksmanship could have tragic results.

Instead of further endangering the poor, how about heavying up on landlords who don't take care of rat problems in their tenements? Or does the fact that they're not poor relieve them of the responsibility of providing their tenants with habitable buildings?

[izquierdista]

3. Watching too much 'Bizarre Foods'?

Could always turn them into cat food.....

[LiberalEsto]

6. Or ratburgers nt

[IMPERIUM V]

7. I bet nobody had to eat rats in the GDR

[xyouth]

9. Bihar puts rat meat on the menu!

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/bihar-puts-rat-meat-on-the-menu_100108609.html

YUM, Rat Tikki Masala

[JVS]

10. If they put a bounty on rats, would it be feasible to raise them for bounties rather than killing?

[Gin]

13. where's the Pied Piper when you need him?