(((Okay, there's a headline you don't see every day...)))
Link: Planet Ark : Florida Tries to Wipe Out Cat-Sized African Rats .
Florida Tries to Wipe Out Cat-Sized African Rats
US: May 25, 2007
GRASSY KEY, Fla. - Deep in the heart of the Florida Keys, wildlife officials are laying bait laced with poison to try to wipe out a colony of enormous African rats that could threaten crops and other animals.
US federal and state officials are beginning the final phase of a two-year project to eradicate the Gambian pouched rats, which can grow to the size of a cat and began reproducing in the remote area about eight years ago.
"This is the only place in the United States where this is occurring," said Gary Witmer, a biologist with the US Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.
"They don't belong here and they need to be controlled." A former exotic pet breeder, living in a small house, bred the species and allowed the critters to escape....
