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July 22, 2005

Mass gerbil rescue

Gerbils

Group Takes 550 Gerbils From Small House [AP]

No, it isn't true what they say about gerbils.

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 06:00:00 AM in Current Affairs

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» Mass gerbil rescue from Can You Hear Me Now?
Being new to the world of gerbils we are still learning about them. So far they have been great except for all of the pooping and trying to look for an escape route. Look at these cute faces. Link: Majikthise [Read More]

Tracked on May 19, 2006 at 04:58 PM

» More on gerbils from Can You Hear Me Now?
Being new to the world of gerbils we are still learning about them. So far they have been great except for all of the pooping and trying to look for an escape route. Look at these cute faces. Link: Majikthise [Read More]

Tracked on May 19, 2006 at 05:01 PM

Comments

Re the Snopes debunker: .."Despite the assiduousness with which doctors record unusual items removed from patients' rectums in order to write them up.."-
Shouldn't that be RECTA? (Who gets to write this stuff?) After washing my face a couple of times, so that I could see the keyboard (yes, I H&P), the punchline of a joke from my teenage years kept running through my head ("It's 'rectum', Johnny". "Wrecked 'im?.. hell, it damned near KILLED 'im!")
FWIW, local slang for teen meth-heads is 'hamsters'; and I suppose if that particular deviation takes hold among the pre-pubescent, they might be tagged with 'gerbils'... ^..^

Posted by: herbert Browne | July 22, 2005 at 02:38 PM

Interesting. If it had been mice, not gerbils, and the mice had not been kept in boxes, but were free roaming through the house, they would probably have been exterminated, not referred for veterinary attention. Of course, if they were free roaming, they may not have needed as much veterinary attention.

What qualifies the gerbils for veterinary attention? The fact that they were being cared for, albeit poorly? What constitutes "care?" If you leave a box of gerbil food in the cupboard and the mice get at it, are the mice being "cared for" and therefore domesticated? Did the gerbils qualify for care because they were a species commonly kept as pets? Mice are kept as pets. Was it the fact that they weren't "wild" rodents? The fact that they weren't "native?" Norway rats aren't "native," but they're unlikely to get veterinary care. Unless they're pet rats, which are more likely to be white rats. AHA! This is a race thing, isn't it?

Posted by: Michael Schmidt | July 23, 2005 at 12:12 AM

Well, whatever the urban myths about gerbils, that's a cute piccie of them.

And at least the RSPCA managed to intervene before the collection of gerbils got really out of hand.

Posted by: TheaLogie | July 25, 2005 at 08:35 PM

do you still breed????

Posted by: kaylee | January 13, 2008 at 10:53 PM

I have 18 happy health white gerbils available for adoption in Wrentham, MA. Age ranges from very young to adult.

Posted by: leslie | August 11, 2008 at 04:54 PM

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