Paris - A pet support group said Thursday Parisians see rats as fashionable following the release of the animated film "Ratatouille."

The pending release of the film has prompted a 40 percent increase in ownership of rats as domestic pets.

"Since the film came out we have seen this vast increase in pet numbers, with the animal becoming truly fashionable," Gerald Moreau, who runs The Association for the Promotion of the Rat as Pet.

Moreau, who said he has 19 pet rats, said traffic to his Web site has tripled since the film's release in France.

"Every child is pestering their parents to get one, which is wonderful," he said.
go

I have nothing against rats as pets but I don't think I could own one. *twitches*

i used to have one, they are very affectionate and not at all like you would think Pandy

I used to own a pet rat her name was "SHE BITES",she never bit anyone.she died of old age.

My little sister had a white one. Then I fed it to my pine snake.................



Lapiche

^

I honestly have no idea whatsoever what rats are actualy like. I have never seen one. I always thought they were just larger mice. We don't have rats in Alberta.

!

rats are great and make really lovable pets just.. don't own a rat and a cat at the same time.

It's always so depressing to me that people will make pet decisions based on a movie. Remember 101 Dalmations? Suddenly, everyone had a Dalmation named "Pongo"... then a few weeks/months later, the dogs were in the pound. I shudder to think how many rats will be passing fads - they really do make great pets.

My sister had a rat, and it was the most affectionate little critter. She would poke her head out of my sister's jacket when my sis rode her bike. Our b**** great aunt poisoned it because she didn't like it in the house during her visit.

I'm guilty.. after finding Nemo came out.. I rushed to the pet store and got my kids some clown fish.. which.. refused to die..

That's terrible! :-( How did she reason away killing someone else's pet?! (wow, that just made me mad! ) I had a rat as a child, too, and he was the sweetest, most gentle pet...


Is it horrible of me not to feel as bad about fish? Really, a fish won't waste away if you don't pet it and play with it. In fact, I've never had a fish that lasted longer than a few months, so I think somewhere along the line I started thinking of them more as decoration than pets...

She denied killing the rat, but my sister found some mouse poison in the rat's food. We hated that woman, she never came back, we were so mean to her.

We have two gold fish and one did die, but came back from the dead. They are HUGE! They even killed and ate the snail I bought to clean the tank, even thought the guy in the store said they wouldn't. They are just pigs, LOL.

Whoa! I've never heard of carnivorous goldfish before... or ones that could come back from the dead (are you sure it's not a zombie fish, and just ate the snail's brain? ). Note to self: never put hand in fishbowl occupied by goldfish!

LOL. These ones are safe, my hand has been in there plenty of times, cleaning the tank.

they're dirty, and they eat everything

If you really want it for a pet i see no problem with it, but when there is fad pet buying going out of controle, and you know most of them will be dumped or just let go into the street when people get tired of the novelty then i got a problem with it!