October 11, 2006

• *bzzzzzt*
• Awesome. Disgusting, but awesome. List of comments are hilarious, esp. how quickly they make the equation to suicide-bombers.
• I am not a member of PETA, but that is a disgusting way to treat animals.
• It's a rat, I don't care about rats. I think the potential for putting more crap in the rat is greater though. Rat cell phone? Rat walkmen? Rat iPod cozie?
• Happily, the rats are beyond caring what imbecilic and pointless things have been done with their remains.
• Overall I think it perpetuates a disrespectful attitude toward nature, but then I'm a bit nutty and in need of some chicka-chicka-bow with some sexy girlie girl.
• nutty + no sex = treehugger
• hmmm...well I think it's fucked up if they kill the rats just to make some halloween decorations, but if the rats just happened to die I dont see anything wrong with then choosing to taxidermy them (and in such creative ways!) I intend to donate my body to science (once I have died!) and I am sure much more ignominious things will be done to my corpse....
• quid medusacorpse? *mind boggles*
• Yeah but you're making that decision in that scenario. And making bizarre things out of human remains is pretty well documented as a human activity. Not so with the rats. Also Cubed Eggs, fwiw. YMMV.
• Caution!, squee-lovers may wish to skip this comment!: -- Just google 'frozen rats' to find what zoos, nature preserves, scientists, and herpetologists feed their critters - frozen rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks can etc can all be had. Snakes gotta eat, too.
• Rats are actually excellent pets. They are very clean and social.
• My friend had a rat named "bitey." It was appropriate.
• Aye, rats are social critters, and clever little animals. And of course these are were domesticated rats, not feral, as ye can tell by their pied coats. The fact of domestication in itself argues to me that human beings have a certain obligation to them insofar as providing them with things they need to support their lives, food, a rat-geared social and non-stressful environment and so on. Just as I think we have this obligation to all other critters we've made dependent on us. Any animal, when afraid of being harmed, may bite. Rats don't carry AK-47s or shotguns, they have only their little rat-teeth (and very fine teeth these are for most ratty purposes, enabling them to penetrate a tin can of cat food or your thumb with equal facility). white rat's small feet feel cool against my skin as he swarms up my bare arm I like the way his pink nose twitches grin and bear it when his silkstrand whiskers tickle
• To clarify Bitey was just hornery little bastard. He was bought at the same store as another rat, same time as well. The other rat (don't know the name) was pretty sweet from what I heard. Bitey was just mean. The fact of domestication in itself argues to me that human beings have a certain obligation to them insofar as providing them with things they need to support their lives, food, a rat-geared social and non-stressful environment and so on. I think all rats have the potential of becoming feral. I think if I was to release any domestic rat into my attic, basement, a barn, a sewer, or garbage dump, they would do quite well for themselves. I couldn't say that for many domesticated dogs, snakes, birds or possibly cats (my cats would be dead in a few days). I could be wrong about that, I don't own rats. I could never get past the huge testicles.
• I could never get past the huge testicles. Can any of us?
• To spoil a trick may seem malignant but these hijinks make me indignant a rat's not worth ten cents or so but how they're treated there I go --pete "two rats' nest" best, treehugger, suave gadabout
• Monkeyfilter: I could never get past the huge testicles
• Finally!
• Taxidermy makes one squirmy But a juicy steak on a plate served with garlic toast and a pate of butter makes one salivate. And a nice leather jacket is all the racket at a New York city bar It's better to be small and furry To escape mad mankind's killing fury Than a lumbering oaf of a cow Walking into a slaughterhouse right about now /beret
• I know this is hypocritical, as I have owned a leather jacket once upon a time and occasionally eat meat, but considering how blatant this example is I should say it. I am really uncomfortable with the idea of killing an animal to make a stupid toy. And I know the rat was probably going to be fed to a snake otherwise, its still increasing the demand for pet rats.
• Sorry for being a dumb monkey, but I don't see any difference between killing that rat, stuffing it, and placing LEDs on its head and doing the same thing to the author. Ape shall never kill Ape.
• I don't think it's hypocritical. Sustenance and clothing is a far cry from "stupid toy". This is the rat equivalent of the elephant foot ash tray.
• I didn't look at the link, because I know it'll upset me. But I WANTS the egg cuber!
• And I want it even more for the package showing the chicken yelling "%$@#* OUCH!"
• Speaking as a person who has offed many a rat in the name of science (and stuffed one to boot in a mammalogy course) I can't decide if this is funny or weird. Once we're done with the body, they just get incinerated. Study behavior, do a drug test, drill a hole and play with the brain, then a freezer full of rat bodies. No need to assume that they're killed just for fun like this, the sheer number generated by the average research lab means there will be bodies left over to do this with. Not different in concept than dissecting animals killed at humane shelters, except in that case someone is learning about the animal rather than making a toy out of it...
• ...and I did have a pet rat. His name was Ratboy. He was a good rat. The problem is they don't last long enough - we still miss him and he died about 8 years ago.
• Animate Blinky and cats will never again be quite so sure of themselves. but make him out plush, fer crissakes
• Dead dog case mod, anyone?
• At least with the current state of science its sort of "us or them". And if the rat was dead already I wouldn't care. But I get the impression it was killed to do this... I could be wrong.
• For all those who don't actually bother *reading* the article: the author made mention of thawing the rat out - they didn't kill it, they bought it dead already.
• For all those who don't actually bother *reading* the article Hey, come on now, that is dangerous thinking.
• If the guy had killed the rat himself, it would in fact be better. I approve of eating animals, I approve of using animals for research, I approve of keeping pets, I approve of feeding one animal with other animals. I do not approve of torturing animals, I do not approve of treating animals with disrespect. I spent the better part of a day a few months ago building an "owl feeder" for a rescue station. An owl feeder is a great big metal lined tray built into the bottom of an aviary that you dump live rats into. Big rescued owls eat live rats. Baby rescued owls eat thawed, dead, rats. There is a profound difference between feeding this rat to a snake and playing with its body and tossing its guts into the trash. I assumed he didn't kill the rat himself.
• "There is a profound difference between feeding this rat to a snake and playing with its body and tossing its guts into the trash." I agree with this.
• I never took this class, but when I was in high school the anatomy teacher would give extra credit to kids that made a hat out of the skin of the cat they dissected. My entire science department in high school was chock full of weirdos, except Mr. Otero. He had a Dead Milkmen sticker on his blackboard, and you would see him at the occasional alt rock/indie/punk show. He had a Bob Ross afro and wore suspenders everyday. Which has nothing to do with dead rats. Personally I would like to see an animatronic dead rat.
• I'm of two minds about Blinky, which is I guess why I posted it. One mind is absolutely horrified and saddened, the other is giggling like a ten year old boy with oversized plastic glasses and greasy hair, the other views it not as a pointless toy, but as lighthearted introduction for those interested in taxidermy. OK, three minds.
• For all those who don't actually bother *reading* the article I sense a disturbance in the slack
• A great way to keep your rats close.
• I'm not particularly bothered by it. I'm not at all concerned with indignities to rat carcasses. Yes, it shows that the makers have a disregard for nature, but I see that more as a character flaw than the crossing of a moral line -- this isn't wrong so much as simply rude. The rat was dead. That the rat was intended for food rather than some perverse toy I find irrelevant. The argument can be presented that this sort of thing will cause an increase in the demand for dead rats, but in practical terms, how many people are actually going to see this link and decide to do it for themselves? 10? 50? A thousand? I don't know the numbers, but I suspect that any increased demand for dead rats is minimal compared to the existing demand as snake or bird food. Rats aren't going anywhere. In fact, they'll probably triumph over everything in the end. Rats aren't going to go extinct because of this stunt. As such, there's a qualitative difference between this and an elephant-foot wastecan. Rude, yes. Wrong, not particularly. And sometimes rude things are funny. Once I got past the initial gag factor, I saw the humour. Which isn't to say that I would ever do something like this myself.
• "Rats aren't going to go extinct because of this stunt." /tries to find this assertion anywhere in thread. Fails.
• This could lead to the extinction of rats! posted by Chyren at 05:30PM UTC on October 11, 2006
• *actually looks for comment* *goes to dictionary to look up "gullible"*
• Oh, you won't find "gullible" in the dictionary, koko. They removed the definition and put it in your freezer. Behind the peas. Go look now.
• There's nothing back there but some fudgicles! You --- oh.
• Monkeyfilter: nothing back there but some fudgicles
• Man, I could go for a fudgicle right now.
• It's a kitchen poop glacier!
• Coprolithicle goodness.
• MonkeyFilter: Rude, yes. Wrong, not particularly. Geez, if it was a snake it woulda harvested your carcass for some cheap novelty toy.
• Hey, pudquick, I'm not gonna go through a whole stupid article about making stupid toys about dead rats. Its a dumb thing to do and I have better things to waste my time on. This encourages thinking life is something that you can do whatever the hell you feel like with. The rat WAS killed to do this, just not by the guy in the article. Its not like he found a dead rat in his attic that died of natural causes. Does it matter? Not a lot. Is it stupid and base? Yes.
• Yeah, reading's for suckers!
• What? Wait . . so that means . . wait
• Mord, seriously, read the article or stop bleating already.
• No. Its bullshit. I saw the frozen rats he bought at the store on the first page. Seen enough. Waste your own time watching them get disembowelled.
• Like I should take orders from voices on the internet. I guess I'll go turn off my adblock filters to.
• I don't frankly care whether they were bought dead for this purpose or whether they were killed. The end result is the same. Something died for teh stupid.
• Your brain is evidently too fast for your fingers. What's with the obsessive commenting?
• I'm not gonna go through a whole stupid article...I have better things to waste my time on. ...like repeatedly commenting on the article you didn't bother reading?
• Oh like your comment "matters" so much in a tiny, meaningless website of some insignificant dust-like planet of which the entirety of is so off-the-charts miniscule that faith, reason, and logic don't, like, even care.
• My comment matters. *cries*
• Mord, you have suddenly started acting like a bit of a tosser in this thread. I think I'd like it if you went back to being not.