Joe Shute

Rats are in the modern era, they're moving from being subjects of medical research to being partners in medical research.

There's a particular project in Tanzania which is run by a charity called Apopo and they've trained up hero rats to scuttle across minefields and sniff out the dynamite and the TNT that's there.

And these are the giant African pouch rat which possesses an incredible sense of smell which all rats have.

But feasibly, the things they do with the pouch rat, that could be translated into ratus as well.

In cities, that lack of gnawing would have major implications for sewer networks.

So rats serve a really vital purpose in sewers for nibbling the fats and horrible deposits that get left down there.

And actually, we'll be losing this army of sewage disposal.

Colleagues that keep the water running and prevent flooding on the surface

It hasn't been the paradise I expected.

It would be undeniable sadness, as it would as the loss of any animal.

I think this word vermin, which is constantly applied to rats, and it's a word that I feel dehumanises animals.

deliberately animals and strips them away of the complexity of their inner lives and actually just makes them all about the mischief that they cause to humans.