Pet rat kills California boy; family sues Petco

[OsirisRa32]

I'm sorry the child died. It's an unfortunate tragedy.


But am I the only one bothered that the grandmother bought a male to 'marry' the female rat??
This article also said this child had the rat for over a year(May 2012-June 2013). I'm not a fan of Petco, but how does the family know if the rat contracted the infection in their care or not?
And by that time shouldn't the male and female breed and have pups? And wouldn't the female and offspring be infected as well?


The article also states that rat bite fever is rarely fatal, so I'm wondering if the child also had an underlying illness or immunodeficiency?
Seems really unclear..

I think its interesting that if that rat was in their care for so long with nothing happening...I am sorry but as someone who studies infectious diseases for a living...rat bite fever is not immediately fatal...and this falls on the parents who in my opinion have no grounds to sue as rat bite fever would cause symptoms in a child...Personally if any animal ever bit my children they would be seeing a doctor regardless of the existence of symptoms or not...