Why Rats?

Reason One:
Rats have an incredibly good sense of smell, which they use to find explosives. Unlike metal detectors, they can detect both metal and plastic-cased landmines.

Reason Two:
Rats provide a relatively low-tech solution to the landmine problem, with the potential to be implemented anywhere.

Reason Three:
Rats are light (1.5 kg or less). They will not trip off mines when they stand on them (it typically takes 5 kg to set off a landmine).

Reason Four:
Rats are relatively easy to breed.

Reason Five:
Rats are easy to train, because they are motivated by food.

Reason Six:
Rats are small and very cheap to feed, maintain and transport.

Reason Seven:
Rats are less emotionally tied to their handler than dogs. It is therefore easier to transfer them between handlers.

Reason Eight:
Rats are everywhere. They can deal with almost any environment.

Reason Nine:
Rats are happy to do repetitive tasks.

Reason Ten:
Rats and humans make a great partnership, in working towards making the world a safer place.

It’s easy to be a part of this work, simply by sharing what you’ve learned with everyone you know.

Or you can contribute to the cause by adopting a rat, for just €5 a month. And €5 in Africa buys a lot of peanuts!