Campaign : Plight of Pet Rats in South Africa

Colleens Visit to South Africa

Colleen flew to Johannesburg on the 10th of December 2006 and met with myself, Paula and Leigh De Souza. We spent much of the afternoon talking about all things rattie and Leigh De Souza (who has never held pet rats before) fell instantly in love with my old boy Ozzie.

On Monday the 11th we went to a meeting with Keith Ramsay of the South African Department of Agriculture to discuss the treatment of domestic rats by most pet shops, and the live prey issue. Mr Ramsay asked us if we could write a document about how to properly care for domestic rats (and what they require). Colleen also raised the issue of animal testing that is apparently going to get worse in South Africa as the EU tighten their controls. All in all it was a very productive meeting and we feel that we made an important contact in Mr Ramsay who was very open-minded.

Paula and Colleen then rushed to a protest in Johannesburg. This paricular protest was to lobby for stricter sentences for animal abusers.

Following the protest, myself, Paula and Colleen met to discuss the situation as it currently is in South Africa. Essentially we all agreed that :

1. We needed to launch a campaign to educate people on how to discourage wild rats and mice from inhabiting homes and informal settlements.
2. We need to somehow get a humane solution to the feeding of rodents to pet reptiles (a manufactured food of some sort). We hope to achieve this sooner rather than later and have already made contact with the S.P.C.A. for their input.

Colleen's visit to Johannesburg has yielded new ideas for the club, and the road forward and most important of all, we have made a fantastic contact in Mr Keith Ramsay.

If you haven’t already signed the petition, please do so now, and send the link to as many people as you can. Thank you, on behalf of the poor innocent ratties.