What a great example of how language can be used to obscure reality. This rat has no concept of the harm that may come to them when performing this job that has been forced upon them.
Now one might say: "This rat enjoys this work!". One cannot make that claim without:
1. The rat having informed consent about what this work entails (not possible, given a rat's limited ability to understand what land mines are)
2. In good faith, the rat having been given many alternatives as to what it wishes to do, without coercion
At its core, I see this as necessary work, whether it is automated by machines or performed by humans or non-human animals.
But let's at least be clear what's happening here and not sugar coat it: this is forced/coerced labor, there's nothing heroic about it given that the rat has no idea what might happen to them, and it's not a 'retirement' (this rat didn't wake up and say, I'm going to retire today!), it's that the rat's handlers have decided to no longer force/coerce this animal to work.
I agree that it's not heroic since the rat has no real conception of what it's doing. I was curious after reading your comment what the mortality rate among mine detecting rats was.
This organization says that none of their rats have ever died as a result of their detection work. As I understand it the rats are too light to detonate the mines. Their role is just to detect them and they don't have to worry about accidental detonation.
That makes sense if you think about it. If these mines were the kind of thing that could be detonated by a curious rodent, they probably wouldn't have lasted so long in rural areas.
That's another reason not to call the rats heroic. There is no real hardship for them in this work. They explore and smell and get a reward when they find something. I'd bet it may be better than a wild life, though a moral ideal might be letting the rats choose to work or not. (I wouldn't suggest actually doing that, since I think the forced labor of rats is a small price to pay to save human lives, but ideally the rats would be employees rather than slaves)
You make a good valid point.. that being being said... Free food for life in exchange for sniffing out 71 landmines that I'm too lightweight to trigger...
If I was a rat, I would take that deal... considering that the alternative is, well, being an actual rat :)
Yeah, sure, we didn't ask for consent, but I'll confess my hamburger probably didn't consent either -- though I think we only have get consent if we serve cookies :)
Why do you have to be so negative? This rat is not at any risk of harm because it is too small to trigger the mines. I would say this rat has been and will continue to be very well taken care of. It is also wholesome that people celebrate its "retirement" and appreciate its accomplishments. Your criticism is off base and rabid.
Love this analysis. It reminds me of Maggie Mae's breakdown of My Octopus Teacher as eco-horror film -- it ends up exploring the same themes around language and communication that you brought up here. [0]
The rats aren't in danger though...that's the whole point.
> Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size – they are too light to trigger the mines. When they detect a mine, they lightly scratch atop it, signaling to their handler what they've found.
I think it's very apt that they use military language when talking about this rat.
Same language was used to describe heroic soldiers wanting to save lives with exactly the same disregard of what actual enlisted humans think and feel.
OK, well, if we start dissecting our human acts the same way, we'd literally end society. Most people are coerced into their jobs, due to society taking away their means of alternate survival, and job availability.
Yup. This applies for almost all pets as well. Given the choice to be free, most cats dogs birds etc would "retire" away from us, asking only for food and affection on the ocassional visits.
Humans have a long history of normalizing captivity and slavery of other life.
Also rats are awesome creatures, highly misunderstood.
>This rat has no concept of the harm that may come to them when performing this job that has been forced upon them.
You're probably very wrong here. It is very probable that the rat feels the fear and sense of danger being experienced by her handlers around/toward the minefield (dogs and cats definitely feel the fear of their human companions), and she has been the one who has been going into that danger zone for 5 years. What she definitely doesn't know is that that danger isn't applicable to her. So 'heroic' may be very well applicable here.
"Heroic" language is also deployed to distract from the exploitation of humans financially coerced into doing dangerous or stressful jobs. The clearest example I can think of is the public glorying, on certain types of public holiday, in the "heroic sacrifice" of all the soldiers who were marched pointlessly into machine gun fire in WW1.
The article made absolutely no mention of how or why those land mines got there in the first place. Considering that they exist in such quantities that they are still being cleared up 40+ years after the end of the Vietnam war, it should have at least had a link to a story with more detail.
After working with rats for two years I came to the conclusion that they're basically cats that drew the shortest end of the cute stick. They more intelligent than people think and they have about the same variance in personality as traditional pets like cats/dogs.
"We really trust our rats, because very often after clearing a minefield, our teams will play a game of soccer on the cleared field to assure the quality of our work," he said.
I don't even think that's necessary to reassure the local population. Often the area they're de-mining is being actively used by locals who have no other choice.
Finally somebody noticed this. This is not a lab rat. Is a tropical rainforest species of pouched rat. Much bigger and totally different creatures in many aspects. Is like calling rabbit to a hare, or bison to a cow.
Walking around and exploring until finding food is not "forced labor", is what rodents do all the time in the wild. They are inquisitive mammals by nature. I'm 100% sure that the rat enjoy finding mines (= fruit) in the same way as we enjoy hitting bricks in supermario games. Not to mention being safe from predators at night, the veterinary healthcare services, being cleaned from nasty parasites, the food, water and the human company in an animal that is more or less social by nature. It seems a very good deal for the animal.
Trying to claim "animal cruelty!" here is a total nonsense.
APOPO (the association behind this initiative) lets you "adopt" a rat: in exchange for money they give you regular information on what and how it is doing.
This sounded like a great gift so I did that for a friend but, sadly, passed the "thank you for adopting your rat, here are some information about him", he received no more information.
The "Sponsor a ____" is a marketing tactic, the end result is the same as setting up a regular monthly donation, it all goes into the same pot, unless it's marked for a specific cause or appeal.
However, there is a way to do this right. I donate to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant conservation region in Kenya. You can sponsor an orphan baby elephant, and they send you monthly updates on the elephant's growth, role in the herd (Bull, matriarch, mini-matriarch, etc), and you can follow their progress as they are rehabilitated and released into the wild.
If you just take the money and run, that sours people on giving monthly.
Hmm, I "adopted" one for a couple of years and I would get regular updates - once they passed training, once they were active etc. I think it was every month or two.
Makes you wonder whether you could train birds by burying peanuts over fake mines and then look for where they are scratching for them.
Less intelligent birds are best, because smarter birds like crows would only scratch at some of the mines to attract people intending to dispose of them, only to watch them trigger buried ones in their path. It's something a cat would do as well.
[+] [-] beebmam|4 years ago|reply
Now one might say: "This rat enjoys this work!". One cannot make that claim without: 1. The rat having informed consent about what this work entails (not possible, given a rat's limited ability to understand what land mines are) 2. In good faith, the rat having been given many alternatives as to what it wishes to do, without coercion
At its core, I see this as necessary work, whether it is automated by machines or performed by humans or non-human animals.
But let's at least be clear what's happening here and not sugar coat it: this is forced/coerced labor, there's nothing heroic about it given that the rat has no idea what might happen to them, and it's not a 'retirement' (this rat didn't wake up and say, I'm going to retire today!), it's that the rat's handlers have decided to no longer force/coerce this animal to work.
[+] [-] ALittleLight|4 years ago|reply
This organization says that none of their rats have ever died as a result of their detection work. As I understand it the rats are too light to detonate the mines. Their role is just to detect them and they don't have to worry about accidental detonation.
That makes sense if you think about it. If these mines were the kind of thing that could be detonated by a curious rodent, they probably wouldn't have lasted so long in rural areas.
That's another reason not to call the rats heroic. There is no real hardship for them in this work. They explore and smell and get a reward when they find something. I'd bet it may be better than a wild life, though a moral ideal might be letting the rats choose to work or not. (I wouldn't suggest actually doing that, since I think the forced labor of rats is a small price to pay to save human lives, but ideally the rats would be employees rather than slaves)
https://www.apopo.org/en/herorats/faqs
[+] [-] spywaregorilla|4 years ago|reply
You can totally enjoy something while being ignorant to aspects of the task
> 2. In good faith, the rat having been given many alternatives as to what it wishes to do, without coercion
You can enjoy doing a task, while still enjoying something else more.
Sounds to me like this rat had a pretty good time eating bananas.
[+] [-] jopsen|4 years ago|reply
If I was a rat, I would take that deal... considering that the alternative is, well, being an actual rat :)
Yeah, sure, we didn't ask for consent, but I'll confess my hamburger probably didn't consent either -- though I think we only have get consent if we serve cookies :)
(Bad jokes may be present)
[+] [-] zaybqp|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whymauri|4 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whb4unrhy44
Specific time stamp for section on language (Gorillas in the Congo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whb4unrhy44&t=1016s
[+] [-] wesleywt|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uses|4 years ago|reply
> Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size – they are too light to trigger the mines. When they detect a mine, they lightly scratch atop it, signaling to their handler what they've found.
[+] [-] scotty79|4 years ago|reply
Same language was used to describe heroic soldiers wanting to save lives with exactly the same disregard of what actual enlisted humans think and feel.
[+] [-] slver|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaron695|4 years ago|reply
For the workers these dumb things just make everyone's lives better, rat and humans alike.
[+] [-] summm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pibechorro|4 years ago|reply
Humans have a long history of normalizing captivity and slavery of other life.
Also rats are awesome creatures, highly misunderstood.
[+] [-] trhway|4 years ago|reply
You're probably very wrong here. It is very probable that the rat feels the fear and sense of danger being experienced by her handlers around/toward the minefield (dogs and cats definitely feel the fear of their human companions), and she has been the one who has been going into that danger zone for 5 years. What she definitely doesn't know is that that danger isn't applicable to her. So 'heroic' may be very well applicable here.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] dTal|4 years ago|reply
"Heroic" language is also deployed to distract from the exploitation of humans financially coerced into doing dangerous or stressful jobs. The clearest example I can think of is the public glorying, on certain types of public holiday, in the "heroic sacrifice" of all the soldiers who were marched pointlessly into machine gun fire in WW1.
[+] [-] Havoc|4 years ago|reply
The whole medal thing is laying it on a bit thick and sure the rat doesn't know wtf is going on, but I do think the word is warranted.
This rat found 71 land mines. That's 71 mines that are not stepped on by some kid playing soccer in a field.
Yes there are issues with forcing animals do thing, but that seems pretty worthy of grandiose terms.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] andrei_says_|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jiocus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vidanay|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rchaud|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stickfigure|4 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indochina_Wars
The Cambodian–Vietnamese War ended in 1989, so the mines are possibly not that old.
[+] [-] botwriter|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] whymauri|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] detaro|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rchaud|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsw97|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PoignardAzur|4 years ago|reply
I don't even think that's necessary to reassure the local population. Often the area they're de-mining is being actively used by locals who have no other choice.
[+] [-] viktorcode|4 years ago|reply
Still, as a rat dad this makes me feel happy. Another example as animals help to unfuck human errors
[+] [-] pvaldes|4 years ago|reply
Walking around and exploring until finding food is not "forced labor", is what rodents do all the time in the wild. They are inquisitive mammals by nature. I'm 100% sure that the rat enjoy finding mines (= fruit) in the same way as we enjoy hitting bricks in supermario games. Not to mention being safe from predators at night, the veterinary healthcare services, being cleaned from nasty parasites, the food, water and the human company in an animal that is more or less social by nature. It seems a very good deal for the animal.
Trying to claim "animal cruelty!" here is a total nonsense.
[+] [-] nestorD|4 years ago|reply
This sounded like a great gift so I did that for a friend but, sadly, passed the "thank you for adopting your rat, here are some information about him", he received no more information.
[+] [-] rchaud|4 years ago|reply
However, there is a way to do this right. I donate to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant conservation region in Kenya. You can sponsor an orphan baby elephant, and they send you monthly updates on the elephant's growth, role in the herd (Bull, matriarch, mini-matriarch, etc), and you can follow their progress as they are rehabilitated and released into the wild.
If you just take the money and run, that sours people on giving monthly.
[+] [-] gerbler|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] motohagiography|4 years ago|reply
Less intelligent birds are best, because smarter birds like crows would only scratch at some of the mines to attract people intending to dispose of them, only to watch them trigger buried ones in their path. It's something a cat would do as well.
[+] [-] ggm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krishnadevi|4 years ago|reply
In good faith, the rat having been given many alternatives as to what it wishes to do, without coercion
Enjoy doing a task, while still enjoying something else more.
Sounds to me like this rat had a pretty good time eating bananas.
[+] [-] a0-prw|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] racl101|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antsam|4 years ago|reply