Keep eye out for the super-size-me rat

IF THE Keep Britain Tidy campaigners are to be believed, there has been a 20% rise in the number of rats on our sister island.

Not only have rat numbers increased, a new breed of super-rat has emerged. He is bigger, tougher and lives longer than his ordinary cousin. The growth of fast food outlets and the careless ways of its citizens are to blame for the new terror stalking the land, the campaigners say. Waste food, in the form of half-eaten burgers crusts and crisps, discarded on the streets, is providing a bonanza for rats. There has been a 450% increase in the amount of waste food littering Britain’s cities since 2001.

To highlight the problem, a stunt lady entered a large Perspex box in London’s Golden Square recently. The container was full of hungry rats, surrounded by waste food. Unfortunately, the organisers failed to alert the Irish Examiner in advance of the spectacle so I was not there to observe it. But has one stunt inspired another? Is the super-rat story itself a publicity stunt, invented to make the feckless patrons of fast-food joints more socially responsible? Is there really a new form of rat around? Are rodents actually getting bigger?