Will a Rat choose to save another Rat's life over taking a Treat?

Lilac said:
I still believe animals have souls along with thoughts & feelings of their own. Animals can show more caring to another than what I've seen some people do for others.
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We've been convinced that a creature with a tiny brain isn't capable of thought, empathy, or feelings, and the tinier the brain, the less the creature can do besides act instinctively. But maybe thoughts and feelings, and even reason, have nothing to do with brain size, or with the brain at all. So yeah, maybe that comes from something like a soul.
 

I think all living creatures can feel pain, gratification and have some measure of sentience.
Hence I try and avoid as much as is reasonable to not make them suffer.
That being said, I don't worry about swatting flies, trapping pantry moths or putting ladybeetles or box elder bugs
outside in the cold when they're trying to winter inside my house.
I'll set traps for mice as well when they come inside every October and November.......but I do verbally apologize
to them if they're still alive in the trap. That's before I render them a quick death.
 
Repondering said:
I think all living creatures can feel pain, gratification and have some measure of sentience.
Hence I try and avoid as much as is reasonable to not make them suffer.
That being said, I don't worry about swatting flies, trapping pantry moths or putting ladybeetles or box elder bugs
outside in the cold when they're trying to winter inside my house.
I'll set traps for mice as well when they come inside every October and November.......but I do verbally apologize
to them if they're still alive in the trap. That's before I render them a quick death.
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Problem with some of those is they can be destructive and can carry diseases and parasites. So, same here; if I can't take them outside, or if I know they won't stay outside, I have to destroy them...with an apology.

I once rented a pretty nice house in the city that had a racoon problem...a whole family of them. It was entertaining watching them hang out by my pool, but they made a horrible mess in the garage rafters and they tore up part of the roof. They go to the bathroom in their own hidey-holes. I didn't know they were so disgusting.

Anyway, I called Calif Game & Wildlife, and they trapped and relocated the lot.

I used to let spiders stay inside because they're useful, but my wife doesn't like having them around, and our cat, Penny, hunts them down and plays with them til they die, and sometimes eats them. She seems to know which are safe to eat. (so far)
 
I'll save most critters, even open a door and window and help them go outside. I'll step over ants on the sidewalk. I have wasps fly in during in the summer and don't bother them......But wild rats!.... that's another story. They are very dangerous, destructive and can cause diseases. It's war and they will be eliminated. I saw first hand a few years ago what they did to a pretty large local grocery store. Shut it down for about 3 months.
 

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