{"id":41259,"date":"2015-07-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/animal-rescuer-overwhelmed-by-rats\/"},"modified":"2015-07-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T00:00:00","slug":"animal-rescuer-overwhelmed-by-rats","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/animal-rescuer-overwhelmed-by-rats\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Rescuer Overwhelmed by Rats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At her rental house, which she named &quot;The Critter Caf&eacute;,&quot; Christine Bishop was a well-intentioned rescuer of stray cats, dogs, and lost ducks. Then someone dropped off a cage of pet rats. Soon neighbors were complaining of a stench from the house, and could see rats running outdoors.<\/p>\n\n<p>When officials entered the house, they found the rats had totally over-run the house. They initially removed 1,500, and estimated that at least a 1,000 remained. The property-owner, Dale Carr, says the rats are feral, so &quot;they&#39;ll bite, carry ticks and fleas, and are susceptible to rabies and disease.&quot; Township Supervisor Brian Werschem says this number of rats &quot;&hellip; can breed 1,500 rats every three weeks, so if they&#39;re not removing them at a rate of 100 per week, they&#39;re not making progress.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The next step in the plan is to wrap the house and fumigate it, which &quot;could cost the owner nearly $30,000, not including cleanup and disposal cost.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3462,3663,3664,3677,3996,4248,4575,4804,4805,4977,4978,5038,5090,5169],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-41259","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-avoidance-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-confession","tax_ctp_tags-confession-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-flesh","tax_ctp_tags-iniquity","tax_ctp_tags-original-sin","tax_ctp_tags-repent","tax_ctp_tags-repentance","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-sin-nature","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-struggle-against-sin","tax_ctp_tags-tolerance-of-sin"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Animal Rescuer Overwhelmed by Rats - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/animal-rescuer-overwhelmed-by-rats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Animal Rescuer Overwhelmed by Rats - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At her rental house, which she named &quot;The Critter Caf&eacute;,&quot; Christine Bishop was a well-intentioned rescuer of stray cats, dogs, and lost ducks. 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