Rat rescue: A UAN first

There is a first time for everything, and this is a first for United Animal Nations: a rat rescue. This weekend, a dozen of UAN’s Emergency Animal Rescue Service (EARS) volunteers from California are caring for approximately 1,000 rats removed from an overrun home in Southern California on Thursday and Friday.

EARS volunteer Lynn Frischmann carries rescued rats into the temporary shelter.

North Star Rescue, a San Francisco Bay Area group specializing in small animal rescue, and The Humane Society of the United States removed the rats and transported them to a temporary shelter at Andy’s Pet Shop in San Jose. UAN volunteers spent the entire day Friday setting up cages and “condos” for the rats; stocking their new homes with food, water and bedding; and unloading the rats and sorting them after they arrived.

Today, EARS volunteers continue to work with North Star Rescue volunteers to intake the animals – a process that could take several days for so many animals. Read more about this rescue and sheltering operation on the UAN Web site.

Many of the rats are pregnant or had just given birth. Check out this video of a few of the youngest residents of the temporary shelter: