An observation

[wolfy-hound]

As far as I'm concerned, there's not too many rats. My snakes say they could use some more.

Seriously, there's going to be idiots in every hobby. I do know a few breeders that are laid back and cool with someone breeding their pet rats(or even really nice rats). It's just the "show" people normally. They think of each and every rat as the most pampered pet ever. Sometimes I really wonder if those 'show breeders' really do pamper EVERY rat born? Since by the average numbers, they should have several more ratties for sale than they ever admit to, where did the rest go? Perhaps they just find great loving forever homes for them before they say anything about availability.

Dogs, cats, horses, goats, chickens or pythons. If someone is keeping them animals humanely and they have a market for the babies, I don't really care if they breed healthy animals. It's a myth that breeders are the reason behind shelter dogs/cats anyway. The horse market being in the toilet isn't the result of breeders, it's the AR crowd and their stupid laws. Anyone in the horse industry will tell you that. Breeding a horse right now, you'd BETTER be prepared to feed that baby yourself, or have a SUPERB animal being born.

Snakes(reptiles) usually don't need a ton of time from an owner compared to dogs. They usually want food, water, heat and left alone. So if you don't have time to admire your ball python for a couple days, the python couldn't care less. In fact, he's probably happy to be left to his own devices. A dog would go stir crazy and it'd be the beginning of borderline neglect to ignore a dog for a few days at a time(other than food water and shelter). So mammals are perceived as both needing more care and also as more worthy of concern.

There's quite a few rat admirers on this board though. So you can share all your rattie stories and pictures here!