Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers

International Business Times ^ | February 20, 2013 | Umberto Bacchi:

[DogByte6RER]

Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers

Tehran, the capital of Iran, is battling an invasion of "genetically mutated" giant rats.

Iran has sent in sniper teams to clear Tehran's streets from the massive rodents weighting up to five kilos plaguing 26 district of the Iranian capital, the city's environmental agency said.

"They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Ismail Kahram, Teheran city council environment adviser and university professor Ismail Kahram told Qudsonline.ir.

"They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 60 grams to five kilos, and cats are now smaller than them."

The "mutated rats" have been running rampant in the capital, as cats are scared off by their giant size and traditional poison appear to have no effect on them.

To stop them storming of restaurants' backyards and scavenging public waste containers, the council has deployed ten snipers teams armed with infra-red sighted rifles.

"We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night, so it has become a 24/7 war," the head of the environment agency, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, said.

Rats' carcasses are burnt or buried in lime.

So far 2,205 rats have been shot dead, but the war is far to be won and the council is planning to bring the snipers team up to 40.

[DogByte6RER]

I'm siding with Team Rat in this war ...

[DogByte6RER]

More coverage ...

Iran Dispatches Sniper Teams To Capital To Eliminate ‘Mutant Rats’

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-dispatches-sniper-teams-against-rats-2013-3#ixzz2MWHeILFV

[mdmathis6]

I’m smelling a “BS” story here....need more sources and pictures!

[Tzimisce]

Hm

[West Texas Chuck]

Giant rats? Hmmmm, anybody seen Bloomberg this week?

[mdmathis6]

On the other hand, Egyptian lands are currently being inundated with millions of locusts, genetically mutated rats are attacking Tehran....has God begun to act?

[DogByte6RER]

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I grew up across the street from a professional chemist who went to India to teach villages how to eliminate rats totally using a system of 55 gallon drums and bait to get the rats to drown themselves.

I use the same system in my basement using 5 gallon buckets to eliminate mice from my house. It works great.

Regardless of the size of the rodent, the system works. Ya'll just need a bigger bucket for bigger rats.

[DogByte6RER]

ping

[Chickensoup]

got a drawing for the rest of us?

[Ditter]

Explain the system we need help.

[freedumb2003]

[Westbrook]

I read about a method of rodent control that used birth control chemicals, rather than poison. With poison, you kill them one at a time. With birth control chemistry, you wipe out generations.

Of course, I wouldn’t tell the Iranian Rat-in-Chief, Ahmadi-Nejad.

[dr_lew]

The "mutated rats" have been running rampant in the capital, as cats are scared off by their giant size

Rats, rats, rats
They fought the dogs
And killed the cats.

Who ya gonna call ... ?

[UCANSEE2]

[COBOL2Java]

Some of our Rats have really big mouths:

---

...and some are really odd:

[Ellendra]

They’re killing Splinter?

[Monkey Face]

Sould we believe even THAT? (I don’t think so!!!)

[MHGinTN]

Sounds like it would be fun ... I have a Henry repeating lever rifle that will shoot 50 gr subsonic .22 lr with a high degree of accuracy. Give me some night vision equipment and turn me loose on them thar rats!

All that aside, this sounds like training their snipers for night wet work more than eliminating the rats.

[Monkey Face]

Oh, doggies! Them are some really skeery RATS!

(But Iran embraces them....so who ya gonna call?”