A so-far unidentified man in Bergen, Norway has been arrested for sabotaging the city’s effort to rid itself of an invasion of rats. The man, in his 30s, says that he wants to “give rats a voice.”
Bergen has been on a major anti-rat campaign since January, trying to get numbers under control. The city has a long history of disliking rats: they brought the plague to Bergen and Norway in 1349.
Rat Man (Rottemannen), the name given to him locally, has posted videos of himself sabotaging rat traps and spray-painting pro-rat slogans around the city. City officials filed police complaints, saying “This is vandalism. Sabotage of a measure that we see as necessary.”
The Rat Man feels differently: “It (the sabotage) is an art project, a kind of ‘performance’. The idea is just to give the rats a voice,” he told Norwegian broadcaster TV 2. I look at rats like any other animal… living individuals with feelings and personal relationships. The rats, like humans, have the ability to think abstractly.”
Image: Reg McKenna/Wikimedia
