Being an animal lover doesn’t mean feeling compassionate about only a specific animal or breed. Some people have a deep love for all creatures and manage to love everything from animals to pesky insects. Remember Phoebe’s pet rats? Well, as bizarre as it sounds, this woman from California has been sharing her van with more than 300 rats who are ‘healthy, happy and ready for adoption.’
It all started with just two rats and within no time they multiplied in an army of rodents living inside a van parked in one of San Diego’s more ‘upscale communities’. According to Fox News, the San Diego Humane Society received a call from a woman living in her van near a convenience store. The woman identified as Carla said that the number of her pet rats had gone out of control and she was in dire need of help.
The officials immediately reached the spot and found that the van was overflowing with rats and that “the situation was significant.”
“They could tell immediately that it was a huge amount [of rats]. They were living out of the van, coming and going,” said Capt. Danee Cook with the Humane Society’s law enforcement department. Videos of the van showed the rodents gnawing at the insides of the van, some hiding inside the door panels and others burrowed into the seats and the engine.
Although the situation of the van wasn’t healthy, Cook said, “The woman was not hoarding the animals and that it was not a case of cruelty, just an owner asking for help after the number got too large.”
“She was feeding them well, had water for all of them. This didn’t meet the standards of hoarding,” he further added.
The immediate outburst of the rats compelled Carla to ask for help and she ultimately agreed to put the pet rats for adoption. The San Diego Humane Society then released a press note declaring the availability of the rats for adoption.
Officials were then sent on repeated intervals who spent days picking up the rats from “every crevice” of the vehicle. “In total, they collected 320 animals – the majority of them were juvenile and many of them pregnant,” Cook said.
The press release said that the society was looking for homes for 140 of the pet rats who will be adopted for $5 per same-gender pair. After the van was confiscated, Carla moved to a new home with the aid of funds raised by a GoFundMe page, reports The Sun.
We hope all of the furballs find their happy place.