An animal rights group has called for China to treat rats with kindness and respect. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said it has asked the Chinese government to consider animal welfare laws for rats used in laboratory experiments.

Coco Yu of PETA’s Asia-Pacific branch said in a statement: ‘Rats sing, they dream, and they express empathy for others.’

And they were also possibly, probably, responsible for the Black Death, or the Black Plague, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history. It probably began in Central Asia and spread to Europe by the late 1340s.

The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75 million people; there were as many as 50 million deaths in Europe.

The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe’s population.

Still the rats who carried the disease probably did not mean to. Just one of those things. They were singing and dreaming as they did it. And probably expressed empathy for the victims.

The rat is one of 12 animals in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, which follows the lunar calendar.
Source: Yahoo