Hello everyone!

I have a little rat problem in my garage so I picked up a Havahart trap. I plan on releasing it in a park nearby. Are there any precautions I should take before, during, and after transport? I'm going to wash my hands afterwards, but is that enough? Is there another type of area I should release it in? I live in the city of Toronto.

You have an actual rat!?

Shit, I'd call pest control and stay in a hotel over night, and no that is not one of my stupid sarcastic answers.

Just to point out, I have coyotes bears and wolves in my yard on a nightly basis, and it doesn't bother me because next to rats, coyotes bears and wolves aren't shit!

Just hire a gullible adventurer or epic hero of legend to do the job for you, like everyone else does.

Wear gloves, don't get bitten is what comes to my mind. You could contact your local wildlife rescue center or a similar institution for questions. Thanks for not taking a life.

I'm more concerned about the diseases and parasites than I am with the actual animal.

yes, he's usually the chosen one or some such variation on that.

OTOH I hear that there's this guy named Gerald or something that's into pest control.

The guy from the river?

Call animal control services and do a full desinfection of the garage. Rats are known disease and plague carriers. If you have any food stored there throw it all out. And as others said gloves are minimum.

I would personally release it a LONG way away from your home.
Just like other animals they can and will travel back to good areas. I am no rat expert, but if you have it staying there now, it means something there is good. So make sure its return would not be an easy or first choice.

Anyway, +1 for animal kindness. Also make sure that you wont get into any legal troubles with where you release it.

A gullible adventurer would likely still be level 1 and would struggle in combat against a rat. They can only equip makeshift cardboard weaponry which lacks the necessary damage points.

A rat is one problem to dispose of. But dead adventurers are a whole different level of fubar. Especially if the neighbours hear their girly screams. Plus the corpse could attract in more rats. Yeah, as well you should be. That's why releasing it into a park would be a bad idea. I know that means it's no longer your problem, but it could wind up being some little kid's problem instead.

Be a man and stamp on it.

I don't wish any suffering on the rat (and a quick stamp to the head should avoid that), but they are a pest, they cause trouble, and when they start entering buildings then their ultimate fate is going to be death from someone. If this is a problem to you, it will just become a problem to someone else if you release it (do you think it's going to suddenly start living out its days feasting on the nuts in the local park?).

Be a man and kill it with a crossbow, then cook it and eat it.

I think you mean stomp on it. Putting a stamp on it only works if you want to mail it to someone.

And I almost forgot, is the rat's name Ben? And if so, is Michael Jackson singing to you about him right now?

I used to hang out with dudes in Austin who owned 3 dogs. Their solution to their rat problem was getting a Rat Terrier, who went on to become so addicted to barbecue that he wound up totally useless regarding the rat problem.

It never once dawned on them to get a cat. :)

---

As that was over 5 years ago, I can provide a Where Are They Now.

-Nellie, aka Mama, a sweet sweet mutt, moved to New York City.
-Wobbles the pug impregnated another pug and remains as happy as can be.
-Chuthers the black lab passed away a few years ago. Never has there been a more powerful will to live. That dude made it to 19, had been attacked by a pit bull, run over by a truck, shot with a shotgun, and lived the last 10 years of his life with a tumor in his hind leg that eventually grew to the size of an American football.

-Shorty the Rat Terrier was shipped back to his home (the aunt and uncle of a house resident) and probably never hunted rat again.

-The house never got a cat. They probably still have rats.