OJAI : Donations, Homes Sought for Pet Rats

Ojai Humane Society workers are seeking donations of cash or food and looking for new homes for about 300 pet rats, but laboratories and snake owners need not apply.

“We’re screening people very carefully,” said Jolene Hoffman, director of the Humane Society of Ventura County. A request from a medical research laboratory for 50 young rodents has already been denied and reptile owners seeking a live meal for their pets are being denied, she said.

Many of the rats “were actually rather expensive, rare types,” Hoffman said. “Some are really gorgeous.”

The animals were impounded last week, when an anonymous tip led Humane Society workers to an Upper Ojai home where 500 rats were caged in squalid conditions without water. Because 200 of the animals were sick, the society was forced to euthanize them by lethal injection, Hoffman said.

“They have to be held and put down individually--it’s hard,” Hoffman said.

Many of the cages were eight inches deep in waste.

“The rats had about three inches at the top to move around in,” Hoffman said. About 40 chickens and ducks, six cats, a dog and three goats found on the property were also confiscated.

Because the owner agreed to relinquish the animals, the Humane Society said it would not file charges.

But with expenses to house the animals running close to $50 a day and cages on every spare table and shelf, Hoffman said the shelter has neither the room nor the resources to keep the rats.

“We need help desperately--donations of food, shavings (for bedding)--even treats like apples and carrots,” Hoffman said. “Ideally, we’d like to find homes for them, but we’re all still in shock--they’re everywhere.”

Regardless, the society will not euthanize the animals, Hoffman said. But it may have to send them to other shelters if enough qualified people are not available to take the animals home.