OT: For RatsNotBrats

A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought you'd like to read about it, or maybe you already know of them. Anyway, it sounds really awesome:

http://www.herorat.org/en/home

HeroRATS are trained sniffer rats that detect explosives and diagnose disease. This unusual idea has been developed into a competitive technology by a group of Belgian and Tanzanian researchers and animal trainers under the umbrella organization called APOPO. APOPO was initiated in response to the global landmine problem. In the mid 90's it was well recognized that most mine clearance techniques in use were slow, expensive, and dependant on foreign expertise.

Bart Weetjens, the founder of APOPO, got his first experience with rats as his childhood pets. Years later he remembered his pet rats when he became discouraged by the scourge of landmines in African countries and the expensive, time consuming, and foreign technologies available to clear them from the land. With their terrific sense of smell and trainability, rats could provide a cheaper, more efficient and locally available means to detect landmines. These would be HeroRATS.

Through partnerships with Antwerp University and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Bart set up laboratories in Belgium and Tanzania to begin training and testing African Giant Pouched Rats in the detection of explosive materials. Bart’s hunch about rats proved correct and the trainings were a tremendous success.HeroRATS can use their highly sensitive and accurate sense of smell to identify the presence of both metal and plastic cased landmines, and can be trained to detect a number of different things like explosives, tuberculosis bacteria, tobacco, contraband, etc.

Working with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining, accreditation standards have been established to license the mine-detecting HeroRATS and over 30 trained HeroRATS are now working to demine Mozambique. From these beginnings, APOPO has also expanded its HeroRAT programs to detect Tuberculosis. Further uses are being explored, such as the ability to conduct search and rescue operations in rubble after disasters.

Aw, thanks m4p! This is very interesting, I wasn't aware of this - how neat! Oh, and it's the African Gambian rats they're using. I think it's so true that rats would be useful in this line of work - their sense of smell is very good and they can adapt easily to almost any environment. I looked at the adopt-a-rat section. What a bunch of cuties.

Thanks for sharing this!

Wow. Talk about creating an innovative and successful program that does an awesome end run around big, super-expensive, impractical techno solutions.

The photos of the rats playing with their handlers are just adorable. The one photo of a rat ambling along behind his trainer, both going back home after work is so cute.

They appear to have happy lives (banana!) under the supervision of practical and compassionate trainers. What a great story and program.

Rats are just freaking AWESOME little pets. I used to have a bunch of them, but since my last girl died, I didn't get anymore. 5 cats and 2 dogs is enough for right now. My cats were just awesome with them, the ratties would run free in the living room and cats would just sit by, taking it all in, as if to say, "This ain't right."

Plus, several had a bout of micoplasma infections that was just awful. If I ever do get anymore as pets, I'll go to a breeder who can certify they don't carry the micoplasma infection. 99% of ones in pet stores carry it and they end up suffering a horrible death from it as meds/steriods/vaporizers don't really help.

When I tell people I had rats, I'd get stupid condescending comments, mostly from breeders, so I'd shoot back with, "Yea, well my rats are a hell of a lot more smarter than most kids."

People don't realize what kick-ass pets they really are. I'd have a whole colony of them if they were to be my sole pet.

When I take a rat to my vet, I keep them in a little carrying case made for small animals. Nine times out of ten, once people find out what's in there, they give me a wide berth. Everyone has this wacky idea that my rat is going to give them some kind of funk or disease.
I've even had encounters with silly breeders who pull their curious kids away. I want to say, "My rats are a good deal cleaner than your kid, I promise you that."

Also, I'd love to inform them that one of my female rats is smart enough to pick a lock....and she started doing this as a very young rat. I'd love to see one of their kiddy-poos figure that out.

I'm glad you enjoyed the article, RatsNoBrats. I thought it was so cool. Rats certainly do seem very smart.

Amazing that your cats got along with the rats, Kim. I don't know if my cats would be so nice.

Wow!This is very cool! I had never considered such a career for rats. But, given their keen sense of smell and intelligence would make them "naturals". Yeah, the adopt-a rat page has some really cute little guys. I'll have to show this to DH. Thanks for posting!