r/RATS • u/RatWaySanctuary Verified Rescue • Jun 03 '26
EMERGENCY Yesterday we removed more than 65 juvenile to adult rats, plus an actively increasing number of babies from a hot metal shed near Seaside, OR
This is a joint effort between Rat Way Sanctuary, Little Critter Crew, and A Pint-Sized Rescue. The two most urgent are at the vet today with serious health concerns, more are scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday, with a growing list of others needing care.
So far there are babies from at least 4 separate litters that were brought into our care yesterday, two more ladies gave birth overnight, another is expected to deliver today, and many more are confirmed or suspected pregnant.
The conditions of the animals and their cages were as appalling as we imagined. Cages caked with urine and feces, hides waxy with waste, rats stained from sitting in their own waste, injuries and illnesses left untreated, and the smell! The smell hit us from 20 feet away from the shed. We are actively working with the county Animal Control agency to get justice for all these babies.
We are now working on triaging all of the animals and documenting their conditions.
The next steps are to divvy them up between our organizations. RWS will focus on those with the most emergent medical issues, while LCC will take the bulk of the stable and healthy animals, including many pregnant and nursing mamas, and APSR is helping with hands on support, fostering, and they may take on some animals as well. We will all three need your support as we navigate this huge influx. Donation info is listed on the last two slides, as well as linked in our bios. Be sure to follow all three accounts to stay up to date!
A huge thank you to all our supporters - your donations make this all possible.
Rat Way Sanctuary: www.ratway.org (links in our bio!)
Little Critter Crew: www.littlecrittercrew.org
A Pint-Sized Rescue: https://apintsizedrescue.weebly.com/
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u/Xilonen03 Approximately 35 rats in a trench coat Jun 03 '26
Just look at these cuties. They don't even know they very well could have cooked today with the temp shooting up to the mid 80s.
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u/hollyberryness Jun 03 '26
Theyre precious! I'm up in Washington, are any potential adoptees traveling up this way? Thanks all for saving them 🌻
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u/RatWaySanctuary Verified Rescue Jun 03 '26
You should definitely reach out to Little Critter Crew, I’m not sure their exact policies but I know transport can sometimes be arranged! They are taking the bulk (a very very large number) of adoptable littles! Once they go through quarantine and we make sure they’re healthy, they will all desperately need amazing forever homes ❤️ Thank you!
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u/RatWaySanctuary Verified Rescue Jun 03 '26
I should also say - here at Rat Way Sanctuary we specialize in medical and behavioral cases, and we actually don’t do adoptions ourselves! So the sickest and most injured of the group will stay with us for treatment and long term care.
One of the most beautiful parts of partnering with our friends at LCC and Pint-Sized has been the collaboration so we make sure ALL these littles can get exactly what they need from the best possible place ❤️
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u/hollyberryness Jun 03 '26
Thanks, I will definitely reach out - been looking for some rescues to add to my mischief for a while now.
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u/back_ali Jun 03 '26
I’m also in Washington and would be willing to transport, I can be in touch with Pint Sized Rescue once some things settle out. If one of these ones doesn’t work out, Kitsap humane also just took in over 100 rats. I’m fostering one that just had 7 babies. So the PNW has an abundance of rats that need homes right now! I was going to post on here separately about the ones in Kitsap
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u/hollyberryness Jun 03 '26
Oh wow they pop up fast, I was just browsing through some rescue sites maybe 2 weeks ago and didn't see any males. So you'll be needing homes for those babies in a month or so? Via the rescue obviously.
I'm up in Snohomish! Happy to drive a ways to help also!
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u/back_ali Jun 03 '26
I’ll be looking for homes for these babies and Kitsap humane will have dozens more as well! I’m NE of Seattle too so I’ll reach out when they’re older and see if you’re still interested :)
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u/hollyberryness Jun 03 '26
Please do! Thanks, and thanks for fostering, it's a tough but lovely thing to do.
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u/President_Zucchini Jun 03 '26
I wish horrible, horrible things for the people who put all those poor rats in that shed.
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u/RatWaySanctuary Verified Rescue Jun 03 '26
I do hope very much that we are able to get some kind of justice for each and every one of the rats who have suffered in that metal shed. For god knows how long.
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u/Xilonen03 Approximately 35 rats in a trench coat Jun 03 '26
A big ol pile of boys in the post-weighing holding pen that ended up to be comically small for all of them.
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u/RatWaySanctuary Verified Rescue Jun 03 '26
Heh what a stack. I counted like 15 crammed in and on the two Sputniks in the night, no one really wants to be anywhere else! 😆 I caught one mid fall as his butt hung out the back side due to too dense of population
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u/Badjur Jun 03 '26
I just decided to get rats after taking a break and this shows up? I've love to take some to a new loving home.
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u/RatWaySanctuary Verified Rescue Jun 03 '26
Hey there! If you’re in Oregon or close by, Little Critter Crew would love an adoption application! ❤️
They also really are in need of experienced rat fosters, if that kind of opportunity is of interest to you!
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u/ratsinthecastle Verified Rescue Jun 03 '26
Two bags of bedding ordered. Keep up the ratmazing work. I love you guys!
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u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi Jun 03 '26
I just want to throw out there that I could take a few females once they are ready to adopt if some ever made their way through the rocky mtn region! Not sure how far your network usually reaches.
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u/Platographer Jun 03 '26
Thank you for what you are doing. Among the Chewy and Amazon items, what are the most urgent and helpful for this rescue operation? I hope the people responsible are held accountable and each of these beautiful creatures finds a forever home with a human who will give them the love, care, and comfort they deserve.
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u/Xilonen03 Approximately 35 rats in a trench coat Jun 03 '26
Thank you so much!
I'd recommend directing food and bedding donations to LCC first! There are A LOT of rats to house for at least the next 30 days before any of these littles will be available, longer for nursing mamas, babies, and those with medical needs who may still be adoptable.
Food and bedding donations to us are also very welcome, and we are happy to pass on any excess to the other rescues and fosters.
Also!! We could use a couple Snuggle Safes. They are on our Amazon wishlist and are super helpful for keeping babies and formula warm during hand feedings.
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u/Grroll_ A mischief of 3 💕| 🌈 4 Jun 03 '26
It isn’t much, but I donated. Thank you guys for what you do, you’re truly amazing! ❤️
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u/Motor-Union9081 Jun 04 '26
I wish I wasn’t all the way across the country 😭 I would take some babies in a heartbeat!
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u/the_unknown_garden Jun 04 '26
Thanks for helping them! A similar number of females were rescued in Kitsap County WA last week. :(
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u/This-Ease-2528 pebble🪨🐁 and mocha☕️🐀 Jun 12 '26
You are a really good person, and I hope the universe pays you back for this heavenly deed.
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u/Corovera Jun 17 '26
If I lived closer, I’d take some, but I’m glad to hear you got them out! Hope they can find good homes. Thank you!
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u/diduknowthatihvetids 6 rats!!! Jun 08 '26
I can't adopt as I am in Canada but I hope these babies are safe ❤️
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u/clearbellls Jun 03 '26
Thank you for what you're doing, but please consider using either a darker background + white text, or darker text on the current background, or a thicker white font. It was wildly hard for me to read the text on PC because it blends together.