Owners Set Dogs On Alley Rats

"Recently, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to let an Arizona-based company test a form of rat birth control by setting out bait in some subway stations this summer.... While dog owners may see it as time-honored pursuit, rat-hunting riles animal-rights advocates. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which opposes hunting in general, expressed outrage after video of a dog snatching rats in a New York City park surfaced online two years ago. PETA Spokesman Martin Mersereau calls the alley rat quests "a twisted blood sport masquerading as rodent control."'

So, do we have an ethical dilemma here?

First, rats are a disease vector for humans, meaning they carry diseases that can be harmful or fatal to humans. A restaurant with a rat problem will be shut down by the authorities. All restaurants are required by law to be free of such rodents.

Second, the use of poison on rats can also indiscriminately kill other desirable animals. A new form of rat poison was approved recently that is more lethal to dogs than ever before. Do we want more poisons put out in public to kill wild animals, including birds, dogs, cats and such? People ARE going to be killing rats, the question is how.

Third, is using a dog to kill rats a blood sport? What if you got a cat to do it? What if all the neighbors in a block got cats and let them roam the town? Are cats any less lethal or painful than a dog when killing a rat? Obviously, no.

I'm never for the indiscriminate killing of any animal. On the other hand, we have a right to protect our health.

My Three Rules: This is why I support hunting and fishing, if a.) you aren't destroying a species; b.) you aren't wasting the meat and byproducts; and c.) the kill is made quickly as reasonably possible. Some animals are killed, but are unsafe to eat, such as rats, so I append that to My Three Rules as an exception. Animals kill and eat other animals in nature every second, minute, hour, day, year, decade, and century. If you believe we are descendants of primitive primates, then we are also animals. I am therefore not opposed to hunting and fishing. I am also not opposed to killing living things, plant or animal, according to My Three Rules. Tell me which of you wouldn't kill cockroaches that infested your kitchen, rats in your restaurant (and which restaurant you'd eat at if it was infested with rodents), or eat a fish or other animal to save yourself or to feed your children. Believe me, no animal rights nut would eat at a place where the kitchen was overrun by rats. These guys are full of bull. And if controlling the population of one species causes the survival of another, so that both survive, how is that wrong?

I hate the way we manage species and habitats. I think it is done all wrong. I hate the way we kill wolves, for example. I also hate poaching, which destroys a species, such as what is happening to the African Elephant.

So, is it OK for dogs to be trained, bred and used, instead of cats or poison, to control rats? I have no problem with it.