primitives discuss rats; potential job for the subway cat

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4668296

No, the subway cat's not at this bonfire, but remember, Shelley 0 said that in the 0bamareich, "everybody's going to have to work," and since then, I've been looking around for gainful employment for the subway cat.

Zywiec (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-17-08 12:19 PM
Original message
 
Berlin's Poor Should Catch Rats, Says Politician

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/0,1518,5967...

I wonder if this will be proposed here soon?

Deep13  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-17-08 12:27 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. "...would break animal protection laws. "

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

Deep13  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-17-08 01:36 PM
Response to Reply #4
 
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.

The only place franksolich ever saw real-life rats was in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants; some of these were as large as big cats.

crikkett  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-18-08 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #11
 
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?

IMPERIUM V (21 posts)      Wed Dec-17-08 12:53 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. I bet nobody had to eat rats in the GDR

[crockspot]

IMPERIUM V (21 posts)      Wed Dec-17-08 12:53 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. I bet nobody had to eat rats in the GDR

I just snorted Pepsi thru my nose. Owwwww.

[Carl]

crikkett  (1000+ posts)        Thu Dec-18-08 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #11
 
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?

Wonder if this will bring the anti Semite primitives to the discussion.

[franksolich]

Wonder if this will bring the anti Semite primitives to the discussion.

I'd like to see the subway cat or the bobbling primitive show up at the bonfire.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Germany is so effed up it's unbelievable.  I suppose it's what comes of two or three successive generations growing up in the "Social state" during booming economic years, and knowing that to the extent there was any outside threat, others were going to carry the water on handling it.  When they fall it's gonna be hard, so hard it will make super-extremism look good to them...and likely to the Right, since the crash will come from the Left. 

[AllosaursRus]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4668296

No, the subway cat's not at this bonfire, but remember, Shelley 0 said that in the 0bamareich, "everybody's going to have to work," and since then, I've been looking around for gainful employment for the subway cat.

The only place franksolich ever saw real-life rats was in the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants; some of these were as large as big cats.

Heh, heh. When "Toots" and I first moved to Oregon during the hippie culture, we rented what amounted to an old AirStream travel trailer with a room attached. The place was also the residence for an extremely large PackRat!

Don't know if you have ever run into them, but they will steal anything shiny. Beer caps, coins, bits of tin foil, you get the idea. Many a time they have found old coins and antique jewelry keepsakes in their nests.

Anyway, I had a real BadAss momma cat. She would even take on rattlesnakes when she had kittens!

This PackRat was living in the space between the floor and the insulation membrane of the frame of the trailer. I threw the cat up in there and she damned near clawed most of my arm off getting the hell out of there! Turns out after I finally trapped the critter it was almost twice the size of the cat! Biggest ****in' rat I have ever seen!

The SOB had damned near my whole 1/4" socket set packed away in there! 

[Chris]

The SOB had damned near my whole 1/4" socket set packed away in there!