Posh Rats
Once that most vilified of all small animals the humble rat is enjoying its best publicity ever as a result of a recent celebrity makeover and is now one of the UK s fastest selling pets according to leading pet care retailer Pets at Home Sales of the rodents have leapt up in the last 3 months after recent stories about rat fancying celebrities as diverse as Angelina Jolie Pink Clint Eastwood and Nicole Richie have helped glamourise the oft maligned mammal It seems as if things are on the up for rats later this year the film Ratatouille a Disney film with an all star Hollywood voice over cast is set to make rats centre stage on the big screen for the first time and 2008 is the Chinese year of the rat which will see the animal celebrated all around the world Some have even given them as presents when Nicole Richie gave Paris Hilton one for Christmas she explained Rats make great pets they re cute and when they nibble on you and crawl on your shoulders they re fun She even admits she is obsessed with them My mother freaks out about my rats and is always trying to make me get rid of them because I am obsessed with them but I love them and so does Paris Contd The increased sales of pet rats shatters the stigma held by many that rats per se are dirty smell and are on the whole unpleasant And in stark contrast to Tom and Jerry cartoon depictions of terrified women leaping on to stools at the mere thought of any small rodent entering their vicinity it seems the very people leading the rat renaissance are young women aged 20 30 In addition to the number of celebrity rat fans that have come to the fore the rat revolution amongst young women is also in part due to the introduction of smaller cuter breeds such as the enormously eared Dumbo Rat Pets at Home s resident Animal Expert Steve Fairburn said Rats were first seen as good pets after Victorian rat fanciers discovered how intelligent and trainable they
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Photo credit: © Adrian Brooks / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: animals, bag, cute, expensive, handbag, lady, mouse, pet, pets, posh, rat, rats, rodent, white, woman
