The trade is not what it was some years ago when Rat-pits were allowed. I think it was one of the worst things they ever did for this country when the authorities stopped the Rat pits, for when Rat killing was allowed in pits, it was a common thing for a Rat-catcher to receive an order for 100 Rats, all to be killed at one time; then the Rat-catcher would get the Rats and wherever he got them from he was ridding that district of a nuisance. But when the authorities stopped Rat-pits and Rat-coursing, the consequence was that the Rat-catcher left the Rats to breed in thousands. Rats being vermin, I don’t see why they should not be killed 50 or 100 at a time in the pit, but the Humane Society maintain that it is cruelty to dogs to put them in a pit with a lot of Rats. I don’t see where the cruelty comes in, but from what I have seen of Rat-pits during my time I approve of them, and I think if they were in existence again there would be a clearing of many thousands of Rats. Some 15 or 20 years since, I supplied 400 Rats in one week, all to be killed in Rat-pits.
Many of my readers may not understand what a Rat-pit is, and so I will just give an outline as well as I can.
The Rat-pit is of circular construction, say ten feet diameter, and about four feet six
inches deep, the sides being perfectly smooth to prevent the rats climbing up and making their escape. A certain number of Rats are placed in the pit according to the arrangements made with the owner of the dog. Then the dog is put in the pit with the rats to kill them, which a good dog does very quickly.
The reason the pit is built circular is so that the Rats will keep running round, for if it were square they would all run in a corner, one on the other, and then the dog would have no difficulty in killing them. It is better to have the pit fairly deep; if not, the rats might escape.
I think the best dog, within my recollection, that I have seen was a bull and fox terrier, which killed 40 good Rats in three minutes and 21 seconds. I have read and heard of dogs doing better feats, but I am only writing of what I have myself seen. I may say that the records for Rat-killing in Rat-pits are held by a dog called Jacko, which killed 200 Rats in 14 minutes and 37 seconds, and 1,000 Rats in less than one hour and 40 minutes.
The Rat-catcher has also some very dirty jobs to do sometimes. Often he has to go under all sorts of cellar floors, both wet and dry, but the majority of places are very wet and dirty, for the Rats nearly always come out
of some filthy drain, and very often near a water-closet, the abominable smell arising from these places being sufficient to cause a fever.
I remember being once employed at a hospital, and I was paid at the rate of 5s. per visit for trapping Rats. Well, I found that 5s. per visit did not pay me (I had about 120 traps set all over the place), so I went before the committee and requested 8s. per night. The committee said they thought 5s. per visit was enough, and one or two of them said they thought 8s. per night was above a Rat-catcher’s pay. Now, as I was not depending on that particular job at the time, I turned round and told them what I thought. I told them I considered Rat-catching was a skilled occupation, and I also offered any of them a five-pound note if they would only follow me under the floors at midnight, not to speak of taking the live Rats out of the traps in the dark; but I can assure you that none of these gentlemen would venture to undertake the task.
Now, if any of these gentlemen had to do this a few times they would not refuse to pay the Rat-catcher the sum he asks, viz., 8s. per night.