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Tag: rats

  • UP man ties stone to rat’s tail & drowns it; 30-page chargesheet filed

    UP man ties stone to rat’s tail & drowns it; 30-page chargesheet filed

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    Budaun: UP Police have filed a 30-page chargesheet in a Budaun court against a man who allegedly tied a stone to a rat’s tail and drowned it in a drain in November last year, an official said on Tuesday.

    The police investigation joined “each and every sequence” and prepared the chargesheet based on the forensic report, videos in the media, and information collected from different departments, Circle Officer (City) Alok Mishra told PTI.

    Police sources said to make the chargesheet strong, the post-mortem examination report has been used as a base. The report indicated the rodent had lung and liver infection and died due to asphyxiation caused by lung infection.

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    On November 25, police received a complaint against Manoj Kumar for cruelty against an animal. Police said animal activist Vikendra Sharma reported them that Kumar threw a rat into a drain after tying a stone to its tail. Sharma said he entered the drain to save the rat but it died later.

    On Tuesday, senior advocate Rajiv Kumar Sharma told PTI, “Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, there is a provision of fine from Rs 10 to Rs 2,000 and three years of imprisonment. And under Section 429 of IPC, there is a provision for five years of imprisonment or fine or both.”

    Kumar’s father Mathura Prasad, however, said, “Killing of rats and crows is not wrong. These are harmful creatures.”

    “Rats had damaged the utensils made using soil, and had turned them into mounds of soil. This caused mental and financial problems to him. If action is taken against my son, then action should also be taken against those who butcher goats, hens and fishes. Action should also be taken against those who sell the rat killing chemical,” Prasad added.

    After the incident in November, the rat’s carcass was sent to a veterinary hospital in Budaun for autopsy but the staff refused to examine it. The carcass was then sent to Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly.

    Kumar was called to the police station for questioning. He was later booked under IPC Section 429 (slaughtering an animal) and also under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act, police said.

    Later, the forensic examination showed the rat’s lungs were swollen and it died due to a lung infection. “Our experts concluded the rat died due to asphyxiation caused by lung infection,” KP Singh, joint director of IVRI, had said then.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Rentokil pilots facial recognition system as way to exterminate rats

    Rentokil pilots facial recognition system as way to exterminate rats

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    The world’s largest pest control group is piloting the use of facial recognition software as a way to exterminate rats in people’s homes.

    Rentokil said it had been developing the technology alongside Vodafone for 18 months.

    The surveillance technology, which is already being tested in real homes, tracks the rodents’ habits and streams real-time analysis using artificial intelligence.

    A central command centre can then help to decide where and how to kill the rats caught on camera.

    Rentokil’s chief executive, Andy Ransom, told the Financial Times: “With facial recognition technology you can see that rat number one behaved differently from rat number three.

    “And the technology will always identify which rat has come back, where are they feeding, where are they sleeping, who’s causing the damage, which part of the building are they coming from, where are they getting into the building from, whether it’s the same rodent that caused the problem last week.”

    In developing the technology, Rentokil watched rats in a controlled environment, with cameras monitoring their behaviour patterns. Machine learning using an AI system allows it to build the recognition capabilities.

    Ransom said the purchase of the Israeli market leader Eitan Amichai in December had given Rentokil access to “significant technology”. The new system is being piloted by customers including food producers and offices.

    Rentokil intends to expand its operation and has acquired 300 businesses since 2016, according to reports.

    The group is targeting “cities of the future” in countries that could soon experience a pest population boom, such as China, India and Indonesia.

    “If you can identify which cities are going to have a massive influx of population, you can pretty much conclude that they’re going to have significant rodent problems,” Ransom said.

    In more positive news for rats, scientists recently discovered that they find rhythmic beats irresistible and instinctively move in time to music. The ability was previously thought to be uniquely human.

    “Rats displayed innate – that is, without any training or prior exposure to music – beat synchronisation,” said Dr Hirokazu Takahashi of the University of Tokyo.

    “Music exerts a strong appeal to the brain and has profound effects on emotion and cognition.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )