Good and Evil

When I tell people I have pet rats, the response is typically negative. They cringe at the thought of holding such a disgusting creature. Often, they ask me, "how can you think THAT is cute?" Well I would have thought that before I had really interacted with one. I believe most people form their own judgements of things they haven't experienced based on what they hear in the media.

One common place to see rats are in the movies. In the movie Willard rats were portrayed as evil animals who eat human flesh. Despite what most of you would think, there are many more movies where rats are portrayed in a positive manner rather than negatively like in Willard. The first one that comes to mind is Ratatouille. In this movie the rat is actually a great chef that interacts with a boy and helps make him a famous chef. Stuart Little is another good example. In this, it is actually a little mouse that is adopted by a human family as their son.

As you can see, rats are becoming a more and more popular animal and pet to have around the house. Even the media is catching on to this and I'm glad they are beginning to portray rats in a different light. It is about time they stopped being blamed for the Bubonic Plague, and start being remembered for their intelligence and their social abilities.