Three white rats jumped from small containers into a large enclosure on Sunday while other rodents explored temporary tunnels and ate applesauce provided by their caretaker at an indoor venue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The scene was part of Ratapalooza, a yearly event in the Argentine capital that encourages people to adopt laboratory rodents that are no longer needed for research or have become excess inventory at animal facilities.
Team Ratas, which means rats in Spanish, hosts events like Ratapalooza to connect these animals with adoptive families. Argentine law permits keeping rats or mice as companions, provided they are not wild animals.
The event resembles a community fair, featuring booths that sell keychains, cups, stickers and hair accessories shaped like rats and mice. Proceeds support veterinary care and food costs for the rodents, which volunteers care for in their homes before finding permanent placements.
María Gabriela Aponte worked at one booth, holding Camamberto, one of three rats she has taken in, while selling plant-based food, mouse-shaped pins and stickers.
She explained that all the animals came from laboratories, specifically from vivariums where research animals live under carefully regulated conditions.
“People don’t really know, or they have a very specific perception of, what a pet is,” Aponte told The Associated Press. “Rats are very intelligent and sweet.”
Dominique Verdier, a Team Ratas representative, explains that potential adopters must have access to a veterinarian who specializes in exotic animals, provide a large cage with plenty of enrichment items, and commit to spending at least one hour daily with their new pets.
Team Ratas leads efforts in Argentina and Latin America to relocate laboratory rats and mice that would face euthanasia without foster placement.
The program began in 2016 when Verdier took in two rats after learning from a friend that the university where they had been used for studies no longer required them.
She established a rescue network with 90 foster families in Buenos Aires and surrounding communities, caring for hundreds of animals from 11 research facilities and laboratories. Over the past decade, she has saved more than 8,000 animals and successfully placed approximately 3,000 in homes.
Her organization has gained more than 60,000 Instagram followers.
Contact with rats and mice may raise health concerns given the current fatal hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius after it docked in Argentina this month.
Hantavirus typically spreads through inhaling particles from infected wild rodent waste, with these animals commonly found in Patagonia in southern Argentina.
Verdier, who cares for most of the 37 rodents in her own home, emphasizes that laboratory rats pose no health risks.
“They do not transmit diseases because they have not had contact with the street nor are they inoculated with viruses and bacteria,” she said.
The laboratories that have worked with Team Ratas for years only provide animals that have never been exposed to viruses or bacteria.
“Several laboratories prefer to euthanize the animals, while others tell me, ‘Take them away, we don’t want to sacrifice them’,” she added.
Veterinarian Silvina Diaz from the University of Buenos Aires conducts research on rat and mouse nervous systems in an experimental laboratory.
She endorses finding new homes for the rodents after their research work concludes.
“It is great that they’re doing this work of rehoming animals in families that can give them a good life,” said Diaz, who serves as a contact between veterinary technicians and Team Ratas.
Verdier, who remains committed to placing these small animals in loving homes, says she has grown accustomed to social media criticism.
“If people see a dog shelter, they might admire it, but when I mention Ratapalooza they say, ‘What you’re doing is silly’,” she said. “And I say that I’ve been doing this for 10 years and it keeps growing.”
