They are seen as dirty, scary and downright nasty. They are associated with sewers, they can produce an alarming 2,000 offspring in a lifetime and they are said to spread all manner of diseases. In literature they are often portrayed as the wrong-doer - scheming, greedy and evil. But according to animal activists, we've got it all wrong. The rat is nice and loveable.
It smells like perfume, laughs when tickled and posses a psychology similar to humans. That is why, in the run-up to the Chinese Year of the Rat which began on February 7, activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Asia-Pacific (PETA) are calling on everyone to treat rats with kindness and respect.
"Rats are intelligent, sensitive and friendly animals who bear the brunt of human fears and prejudices and often end up painfully trapped, poisoned and killed," says PETA which is urging people to start treating rats the same way they would treat other animals.
Jason Baker, director of PETA in Hong Kong, said the group wants people to recognise that despite their poor image, rats pain and sorrow, show intelligence and deserve better treatment - both in the laboratory and on the street.
In the run-up to the new year, the group is launching a campaign against using rats in laboratory tests, in particular in China where testing on animals is easier because of the lack of animal welfare laws.
"We are calling on people to boycott companies that conduct experiments on rats, particularly Mars Inc - the makers of M&M's, Snickers, Twix, Dove, Starburst and Skittles - which recently funded an experiment in which rats were force-fed with plastic tubes," said Baker.
"Mars are really alone on doing this kind of thing and it is only a matter of time before they realise it is not acceptable. "We also want people to stop people using inhumane traps such as using rat glue traps. For one thing they don't work. As long as there is a food source the rats will come back.
"Rat glue traps are available all over the world and this is an issue we have taken on not just in Hong Kong and Asia but in the US. We want stores to stop selling them. "They are an incredibly inhumane way to deal with rats. They die a slow death, suffering in pain. These traps are also dangerous to other small animals such as small birds."
Baker said he was encouraged that the Hong Kong government recognised that the best way to deal with the rat population was by paying attention to sanitation and to proper waste disposal. PETA's Coco Yu said the general public should also refrain from using harsh poison in controlling their population.
"As the Year of the Rat approaches, people around the world can open their hearts to these small animals and come to know them as complex beings who deserve kindness and consideration," she said. As part of its campaign to improve the rats image PETA has drawn-up a list of reason for treating rats with kindness:
The rat is the first of the Chinese zodiac's 12 animals. People born in the Year of the Rat are said to possess the rat's qualities of creativity, honesty, generosity, ambition and the ability to get along well with others and are born leaders. Famous Rats include William Shakespeare, artist Monet, Mozart, Al Gore, George Bush, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles of England, and pop star Avril Lavigne. Rats are social animals who become attached to each other, appear to love their families, and enjoy playing, wrestling and sleeping curled up together.
Rats are clean animals who groom themselves throughout the day. They naturally have a pleasant perfume-like scent when not living in a sewer or rubbish dump. Rats are smart and can learn to recognise their names and respond when they are called in the same way a dog would. As pets, they enjoy human contact.
Rats laugh and express joy. A study by Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 2005 showed that rats make a high-pitch chirping sound similar to human laughter when tickled. Scientists involved in the study said they loved being tickled so much, they would come back for more, and even giggled in anticipation of being tickled the same way children do.