Why does man fight the rat? Each year rats ruin hundreds of millions of pounds worth of grain. They destroy eggs, poultry, song birds, and spoil food in homes and son ships. Fires are caused by a rats gnawing matches, gas pipes, and insulated electric wires. Houses may be flooded when they gnaw through water pipes.
They damage floors and furnishing. Finally, they spread diseases such as the fortunately rare bubonic plague. There are probably as many rats as people in the cities of the world. In the country, they actually outnumber human beings by three or four to one! They climb and burrow and live indoors or outdoors, in dry places or wet.
But rats do have one important use to man. Since many of their organs work very much like man’s, rats are used in laboratories for many experiments. New knowledge about diet, glands, and nervous reactions has been gained by experimenting on them although results can be unreliable.
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