The AusRFS operates a Rescue Service which takes in and rehomes abandoned and surrendered pet rats. As
well as the rats that come directly to the AusRFS, most animal shelters in Melbourne, including the RSPCA, also pass on surrendered rats to us. To date the AusRFS Rescue Service has taken in approximately 5,000 rats. Our Rescue Service
is totally funded by donations and fundraising.

Because rats are a relatively cheap pet to purchase, and breed rapidly, people with a male and a female kept together,
can very quickly find themselves with a lot more rats than they planned. One big problem is that most pet shops know
very little about the rats they sell, and sometimes incorrectly sex the babies, or a female will already be pregnant when
its sold, so the resulting litters aren’t always the owners fault. Usually these litters are a one off, and we are able to
assist the owner to rehome the babies and give them advice about how to correctly look after their pets.

More disturbing are the rescue calls, which can result in our members travelling to all sorts of locations to
rescue ratties in need.

A few examples:

A cage containing two lovely, friendly old boys had been abandoned in a park, we had no idea how long they
had been there.

Another call from office workers who found a glass aquarium in a rubbish skip, the rats inside had no food or
water and unfortunately one had already died by the time our officer got to them.

Estate agents have found cages of pet rats left in flats after the occupants have moved out.

Also a call from the police who brought a little rat to us that had been injured along with its owner in a serious
car accident.

In November 2009 our Rescue Service took in the largest group of rats ever at one time. A man surrendered
75 rats to a Melbourne animal shelter. He’d been keeping all the males and females together!
The shelter passed the whole group on to the AusRFS and we swung into action, separating boys from girls,
working out which required medical treatment, assessing which were friendly and which needed more handling
and socializing. A couple of older boys were very ill and did not respond to medication, so unfortunately had to
be euthanized. We also found that 4 of the girls were already pregnant.