NEW YORK — Animal rescue volunteers are racing to find new homes for hundreds of pet rats found running amok in a filthy, now condemned house in the New York City suburbs.
A group of about ten volunteers have spent the last couple of weeks rounding up the domesticated white rodents at the home in Rocky Point, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) east of Manhattan on Long Island.
Frankie Floridia, president of the Strong Island Animal Rescue League, estimated the group has collected more than 450 rats already and have roughly 30 more to catch with a major winter storm quickly approaching the region.
“What makes it challenging catching rats is that they’re in the walls, they’re everywhere,” Floridia said as he wrapped up a day trying to wrangle rodents at the home Thursday. “This is a unique situation. We haven’t had something like this ever.”
The group has been working with a local animal hospital to nurse the rats back to health.
Many are infected with mites and are suffering from eye infections, bite wounds and other ailments, said Erica Kutzing, the rescue group’s vice president.
Still, only about 10 have so far been euthanized, she said. More than 200 have been placed in permanent or temporary arrangements, including fostering or adoption by local families.
Kutzing also praised the rescue groups in Virginia, Connecticut and other states that have stepped up to take in more than 50 creatures so far. She said volunteers are working to transport the rats safely to their new out-of-state homes.
“A lot of people find them to be less desirable animals or pets, and kind of outcasts of the animal world,” she said. “And so when you love the underdog and you care about the underdog, you tend to be a kinder person.”
The group is still seeking homes for more than 200 of the rats rescued so far. Kutzing says they’re encouraging people to take in two or three, as rats aren’t solitary creatures.
“These rats deserve a second chance,” added Floridia. “They’re clean animals and can be friendly, like a hamster. They make wonderful pets.”
Kutzing said the rodent infestation appears to have been a case of things quickly spiraling out of the homeowner’s control, and not something more deliberate, like a breeding operation.
Rats, after all, give birth roughly every 20 days to a litter of almost a dozen babies, she said. And even though they only live two to three years, they can reach maturity in just a matter of weeks.
“It snowballs fast, so if people are struggling with something like hoarding, for example, it’s going to send you deeper into that hole,” Kutzing said.
The homeowner, meanwhile, has been charged with animal cruelty, neglect and endangering the welfare of a child.
Police say a toddler had been living at the house for weeks in unsanitary conditions where the floors were covered in rat feces and urine, and rodents were freely roaming around.
The homeowner pleaded not guilty at her arraignment earlier this month, according to prosecutors. Her lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
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