# Frustration



## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

I was reading the comments on a buzzfeed "exotic pets" video on youtube and some people we're commenting on how they said something about that rats may bite. They commenters were saying "Oh a rat will ONLY bite if you did something wrong" Have they never owned a rat? I had never mistreated Jojo in anyway shape or form or did anything to scare him yet I still got bitten a couple times. I assume it was because he was mistreated at the pet store that I got him from. One person put up the argument that "They only live 3-4 years so they can't develop fear from being mishandled at a pet store and such" ...really? A LOT can happen in 3-4 years. So basically they're saying "Oh a rat can learn all this complicated tricks and such but they can't develop a dislike towards something."


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

No offense..but it's because some people are dumb as rocks.

I had a call escalated to me while I was working in customer service because her paperwork had not been received. She told me she had faxed it to us from her home. I asked if she could pls refax it. she became unhinged and was yelling how she no longer had the paperwork cause she already faxed it to me. I had to walk her through opening a drawer to her fax to find the paperwork. She acted like it was a miracle..and was amazed she had other paperwork there as well that she had faxed. She honestly believed faxes zapped paper from her house and to another location.

Honestly, all you can do is give correct information, they will believe what they want. Don't let them get you down though, that is just silly. Animals with teeth can bite-though there are common reasons, the reason can be many. Now if they said, rats are less likely to bite than many other animals with teeth, I would agree. But to simplify it to "you did something wrong" is just plain crazy. Especially if in the same breath they say they can't develop fear from mishandling.


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

Oh gosh if we could zap paper from one place to another we would be so much further along with technology then we are now xD


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## erinsweeney (Nov 13, 2014)

Try to avoid ableist slurs. Just because somebody doesn't know something doesn't mean they're neurodivergent. And plenty of neurodivergent people might be "smarter" than you are. 
Honestly if the use of slurs on this forum continues to be widespread I may have to leave. As an autistic person, you all make me feel incredibly unsafe and persecuted.


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## SaraLovesRats (Jan 11, 2015)

What do you mean by slurs?


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## Tao.and.Laughter (Jan 24, 2015)

I work in an insurance call center in the flood department - I can't even begin to tell you how many people make you wonder "How is it that you even have a computer?", and that's being nice about it.

For people who seem to think rats never bite, the only thing I can imagine is that they've never owned a rat. Or a cat/ferret/sugar glider/rabbit etc - ALL animals bite at some point, whether it's to play, explore, fear or whatever. To say anything else is ignorance.


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

SaraLovesRats said:


> What do you mean by slurs?


What they mean by slurs is like "Dumb, stupid, retarded" etc


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

Tao.and.Laughter said:


> I work in an insurance call center in the flood department - I can't even begin to tell you how many people make you wonder "How is it that you even have a computer?", and that's being nice about it.
> 
> For people who seem to think rats never bite, the only thing I can imagine is that they've never owned a rat. Or a cat/ferret/sugar glider/rabbit etc - ALL animals bite at some point, whether it's to play, explore, fear or whatever. To say anything else is ignorance.


The people were claiming they had owned rats for a awhile.
Here are some of the messages:
"I've owned plenty of rats in my day, can't say I've ever even been bitten by one, what on earth do you do to your rats to make them act that way?﻿"
"not all rats bite, and if they do, is because they fear you,meaning you've done something wrong. But they can still bite you if their hormones are of the roof.﻿"
"yes, that was exactly my point. I have rescued most of my rats and I can still say, I have never been bitten, I've been scratched, but that's a given. Rats are very gentle and sweet creatures, and they would only ever bite if they feel they are being threatened, or if you injure/scare them.﻿"
"That's what a figured. Besides , if they were that aggressive, they'd probably be illegal.﻿"
"yes, that's exactly right! ^.^ rats don't live long enough to feel that way, their lifespan is 3-4 years, so a rat would only bite you in particular if you were to do something to them. -.-﻿"


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## Tao.and.Laughter (Jan 24, 2015)

Hedgian said:


> The people were claiming they had owned rats for a awhile.
> Here are some of the messages:
> "I've owned plenty of rats in my day, can't say I've ever even been bitten by one, what on earth do you do to your rats to make them act that way?﻿"
> "not all rats bite, and if they do, is because they fear you,meaning you've done something wrong. But they can still bite you if their hormones are of the roof.﻿"
> ...


You know what I bet happened? One person started by saying "Oh, I've had rats for years, and I've never been bitten," Then you have someone thinking to themselves "...does that mean I do something wrong with my rats? I still want to make a comment, but maybe I should say I haven't been bitten to keep from being vilified..." And it just trails on downward.


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## Tao.and.Laughter (Jan 24, 2015)

erinsweeney said:


> Try to avoid ableist slurs. Just because somebody doesn't know something doesn't mean they're neurodivergent. And plenty of neurodivergent people might be "smarter" than you are.
> Honestly if the use of slurs on this forum continues to be widespread I may have to leave. As an autistic person, you all make me feel incredibly unsafe and persecuted.


I can't imagine it was at all meant as a slur. There's also a great deal of difference between dumb and stupid - Someone is remarkably book smart but has all the common sense of a wet towel? I'm likely to call them dumb. "Retarded" is a horrid word, and also not one that was used in this post. Obviously I can't speak for any post beyond this one, but in what other post have something been directed to make you feel persecuted? Did you point it out to an Admin? I'd hope so, it'd be pretty awful for someone to direct something that's verbally abusive at you.


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

If someone is directing that sort of stuff towards you then definitely report them to a mod. (I have not once seen an admin on here though?) 

It just irritates me. I think people would be smart enough to put together that rats are prey animals and may bite something that's bigger than them if they hadn't been handled properly beforehand. I don't know the deal with Blaze but obviously he was raised really well before I got him since he's so incredibly friendly and only has ever play bitten me (and it's not like a bite that he's trying to do harm it just a gentle thing) the babies are great they have only nibbled on my fingers. It's just Jojo and I got him from petsmart and obviously he was mishandled greatly considering how scared he was of being handled.


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## Tao.and.Laughter (Jan 24, 2015)

Hedgian said:


> If someone is directing that sort of stuff towards you then definitely report them to a mod. (I have not once seen an admin on here though?)


Mod is what I meant - I couldn't think of anything beyond "Admin" but I figured it would work ;D

All four of my girls nip, if that's what it can be called. It's more like holding with their teeth - Like a light pinch just to see what I've got going on. Although Lulu tries to chew my fingernails, but I think it may be because she's an oddball. In any case, yeah, if there's abuse of course they'll bite. The very idea that just because they've got a shorter lifespan they can't learn to react to abuse is absurd, ridiculous and yeah, it's kinda dumb. It also worries me that they're ok with being awful to their rats because, hey, it's not like it'll have an effect, right?


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

Where does someone even get the idea that just because an animal doesn't live that long it can't understand abuse?


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## Jessiferatu (Apr 30, 2014)

First rule of internetting is that you don't read the comments section on anything, unless you *want* a headache and the loss of your faith in humanity.

It's probably fair to say that rats are not likely to bite for no reason, but that certainly doesn't translate to "rat's don't bite ever." I've been bitten once and nipped more than a few times. Sometimes my fault, sometimes for no reason I could see. I think people tend to forget that animals only have so many ways of communicating with us. Sometimes a bite is the clearest message they can send.


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