Posted on 08/28/2011 8:53:53 AM PDT by JoeProBono
NEW YORK, - A city housing worker says he bagged a 3-foot rat with a pitchfork at a New York apartment complex.
Jose Rivera, 48, told the New York Daily News that two other giant rats escaped.
"I hit it one time and it was still moving," Rivera said of the rat he stabbed at Marcy Houses. "I hit it another time and that's when it died. I'm not scared of rats but I was scared of being bitten."
Naomi Colon, head of the apartment complex's tenant association, told the Daily News huge rats have been sighted there for at least six years.
"The residents have told me that they've seen it running around with other rats," she said.
Animal experts said based on a photo of the dead rodent -- about 3 feet long from its nose to the tip of its tail -- it was a Gambian pouched rat, often kept as a pet, although imports have been outlawed for several years.
Paul Calle of the Wildlife Conservation Society said the Gambian rat can't reproduce with other species of rats because they are from a different genus.
The size of the Gambian rat has Marcy House residents unnerved.
"Even the cats are afraid of the rats. They get together and gang up on the cats," Stephanie Davis told the newspaper.
Cute face. Like anything else pet related, irresponsible idiots ruin it for the rest of us...these guys are really smart and make great pets, but as pointed out, it’s illegal here.
Because the DA is filing charges of election tampering. He eliminated a Bloomberg voter without authority.
Was this a Jim Shocky hunting excursion. Looks like he bagged a wallhanger.
I SO want one, if they ever become legal. Pretty similar temperament to fancy rats, just scaled up to small dog size.
“Hello. My name is Reepicheep. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
I appreciate the ping, and the headline itself.
Thanks, headline-attentive, grammar-conscious, fellow FReeper!
I once shot an elephant in my pajamas.
Really? How did he fit in your pajamas? (Apologies to Groucho Marx.)
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