Britain's Dirty Big Secret

26 Aug 2006 @ 12:18 GMT | Permalink | Comments

60 million rats are infesting the U.K., as Britons make it a habit to litter on the streets.

Britons' habit of throwing food on the streets has reportedly created a bigger, stronger, longer-living breed of "Super Rats" that are overrunning the country. Between 1998 and 2004, the estimated rat population has swelled 26 percent to 60 million, or one for every U.K. resident.

The increase coincides with a rise in binge drinkers who raid fast-food stores at night and toss leftover containers on the street, according to a British charity campaigning to "Keep Britain Tidy."

(If these rats are anything like mice, who are in fact 'hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings that created Earth,' they could force the collapse of Tony Blair's scandal-plagued government.)

The rats have infiltrated the highest levels of the British government. A rundown eyesore in Manchester that has, under a 14th Century law, devolved to Queen Elizabeth II has housed countless rats for years.

According to Encams, which launched the Keep Britain Tidy campaign:

The amount of fast-food trash on the street has jumped 450 percent in the past five years.

Twenty-five percent of U.K. residents litter.

Rats' diet has changed from grain to protein, thanks to burgers and other meat.

Rats reproduce every six weeks. A couple can produce a colony of 2,000 rats a year.

The overall rat population in the U.K. has reached 60 million.

At the start of the campaign this weekend, Keep Britain Tidy has put a platinum-blonde in a box with food scraps and 50 rats to raise awareness.

While avoiding the controversies surrounding global warming, the National Pest Technicians Association [NPTA] said in its 2005 report that warmer temperatures have contributed to the growing number of rats.

Most of the rats are said to be the Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus). But they will be no match against an army of remote-controlled "roborats." (Watch a roborat in action, and read more about them in TIME. The creator has a small site.)