Rats to the Rescue? Meet the World’s Smallest, Most Unexpected Heroes

Episode 81 • 1st April 2026 • Barking Mad • BSM Partners

00:13

Jordan Tyler

Everybody thinks they hate rats until they remember Remy from Ratatouille. Or Rufus, the infamous naked mole rat from Kim Possible. Rizzo the Rat from The Muppets, Templeton from Charlotte's Web, Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—I could go on. These rats all had jobs to entertain us on the silver screen, but they aren't the only ones who are gainfully employed. More specifically, I'm referring to the roughly 100 African giant pouched rats who've been trained to smell a landmine from six inches under, detect disease without even seeing you, assist in search and rescue missions, and even detect when wildlife is being illegally trafficked. These are HeroRATs, and while they may not wear capes or walk the red carpet, they do have tiny tactical gear and an admirable work ethic.

01:07

Jordan Tyler

Jokes aside, today we're talking about a super unique program leveraging these African giant pouched rats' natural skills and abilities to literally save lives around the world. Get ready to question everything you previously thought about rats and rodents, learn how they're helping safeguard human and animal health and safety, and have some laughs in the process. Welcome to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners. I'm your host, Jordan Tyler. Hello, hello, hello! So, joining us today is Erin Sackett, US partnerships and exhibits officer for APOPO—that's A-P-O-P-O—a global nonprofit that trains scent detection animals to save lives, restore land, and protect the health and environment of the planet.

01:54

Erin Sackett

We started off specifically training rats to detect landmines, specifically TNT. But since then, we have expanded out into testing for tuberculosis, as well as looking for trafficked wildlife, and most recently, our search and rescue program for humans.

02:14

Jordan Tyler

APOPO operates the HeroRATs program in 10 countries, employing more than 343 humans and 104 rats. But wait a minute… why rats? Before we dive deeper into the HeroRATs program, we've got a little debunking to do. When we think of a rodent, we think of mice and rats and squirrels. And our minds often jump to the commonly held belief that these creatures are all dirty and carry disease. But in reality, there are thousands of rodent species that we probably don't even realize run in the same crowd as rats. To help us understand society's inherent fear of rats and other rodents, we have Dr. Jen Parsons, zoological nutritionist and director of nutrition services at BSM Partners, who's worked with more rat species than we can probably count.

03:06

Jordan Tyler

She's also a nutrition adviser for the APOPO HeroRATs program, where she helps optimize what the rats eat so that they can thrive in their jobs and in their life. So Dr. Parsons, why do you think rodents get such a bad rap?

03:23

Dr. Jen Parsons

Well, I think I think there's a few reasons. And some of it is just I mean, I think part of it just comes down to basic human psychology. Right? Everyone has that one type of animal that just quicks you out. Like, for me, it's spiders. For other people, it's snakes. And for other people, it's rats. And that's just part of human nature, and not anything to object to. Like, it's just part of us being human. I think it's also a fair statement that some of the largest epidemics that have happened in human history, and honestly, some of the largest losses of life were due to rodent-borne or rodent-spread diseases. Right? Like, the classic example is bubonic or pneumonic plague, otherwise known as The Black Death. Right?

04:03

Dr. Jen Parsons

So, that's the one that I think a lot of people jumps to mind when they hear, especially rats, or rodents in general. There's some other modern examples here in North America: hantavirus was a big problem in the Southwestern US for a time; leptospirosis is another one; and plague can still be transmitted today, by a couple of different species. So again, it's totally human nature to look at those examples and run with them and assume that most rodents can be unclean or hazardous. I think, though, that the danger of trapping ourselves into those sorts of generalizations is that, one, we're depriving ourselves of all of the cool things that also exist within that group that we're generalizing about, in this case, rodents. And we're missing a chance to just marvel at the wonder of nature.

04:51

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. Absolutely. I like the way that you put that. And I think that can be applied to so many other aspects of life. Right? Life lessons with Dr. Parsons. But it is so important. I think sometimes we forget that, you know, we're all living and thriving because we're part of an ecosystem. What does the science actually tell us about rodents or even particularly rats and how big of a risk they are to human health?

05:15

Dr. Jen Parsons

What the science is telling us is, first of all, and you talked about it a little bit already. Rodents are a really giant, really diverse group of animals. And they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and all sorts of ways of living. There's over 2,000 species of rodents. And that includes things like one of my personal favorites, capybaras, which are these amazing, really large rodents that live in South America, and they just sort of graze like cows through the Amazon regions, and they're super cute. And a lot of zoos and aquariums have them as ambassadors. You would actually meet sometimes when you go to your local zoo. Beavers are rodents. So, those are kind of on the large end.

05:57

Dr. Jen Parsons

It goes all the way down to, the little there's a little, type of mouse called a dormouse that lives in the UK and a few other areas like that. They're the cutest thing, objectively the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. And look one up if you haven't seen one. They're so cute. And then there's things like flying squirrels, which are like, you know, jumping from one tree to the next and gliding incredibly, you know, long distances. Like, there's just amazing animals in this group, and they're really cool. Now among this, you know, over 2,000 species of rodents, there is a smaller subset, about 200 species or so, which are known to potentially carry human disease. That includes some rat species, most importantly, the black and Norway rat. Of that smaller group of 200 or so species that are known to potentially carry disease that can infect humans, it's really only two to five species that were involved in most human deaths throughout history. So that's it, like, a drop in the bucket.

06:55

Dr. Jen Parsons

Two to five species out of thousands of amazing rodents that exist in the world. So, it's a very small subset of all of the rodent species in the world. And most importantly, I think this is the most important thing because this has a lot of repercussions for us today still. Almost all of those cases where rodent borne diseases were infecting humans were in situations where the natural order got mucked with somehow. So, either people have expanded their housing into natural areas very quickly, which put them in direct contact with new types of animals that they hadn't been in contact with before, or humans transported animals from one part of the world to another.

07:33

Dr. Jen Parsons

So that's how the plague spread is people were transporting rats on their ships from one part of the world, where they weren't typically used to being seen. And those sorts of things tend to cause ecosystems to go out of whack, go out of balance.

07:47

Jordan Tyler

So there you have it: not all rats deserve their bad rap, and educating about the intricate nuances of our ecosystems is one of the best ways we can help shift the narrative and appreciate all rodents for their ecological contributions.

08:03

Dr. Jen Parsons

They're actually loving, intelligent, or sweet creatures. Creatures. Like and I know I have some friends who own or have rats as pets, and they love them. And this is true. They like to snuggle, they like to be your buddies. They can be very social, so they can be outgoing and personable. So, yeah, they're not all bad.

08:24

Jordan Tyler

Now that we've set the record straight there, let's come back to the HeroRATs program and specifically the rats in question. According to Erin, the decision to use African giant pouched rats was very intentional.

08:39

Erin Sackett

A lot of love and respect for, like, our New York City subway rats. Right? They're certainly smart enough. But unfortunately, those guys only live around one to two years. So, if there's any pet owners in the audience who’ve had a rat, the hardest thing about them is they just don't live long enough, and they're very prone to cancers. So, we use the African giant pouch rat because it's just as intelligent as those subway rats, but also, they live a lot longer. They live around six to ten years. The pouch actually refers to a pouch in their cheeks. There's some evidence that suggests they might be closer related to hamsters than to the rats we know. So, what they do in the wild is they find a food source and they snarf it down and sprint back to their burrow.

09:31

Erin Sackett

So they can fill up their cheeks with about a whole banana or an entire avocado. And so, we actually, if you check out our social media, we have all these videos of our rats getting all the snacks they deserve. We call it Full Cheek Friday. It's very cute. Please check that out. I will tell you though, it makes veterinary appointments a lot harder because we have to check them for any lumps, right? Like cancer. So, we have to massage their cheeks to make sure everything is healthy. And that means we're, like, pulling out, like, their favorite pebbles or, like, 20 peanuts. It's like a clown car. Like, it just keeps coming.

10:11

Jordan Tyler

Aside from those adorable chubby cheeks and long lifespan, African giant pouched rats have highly developed senses of smell, which is a key skill that makes them perfect for their jobs with APOPO, which we'll get into here in a minute. These African giant pouched rats are also known for their calm personalities, being sociable with humans, and while not native to all the areas in which they work, they adapt well to their local environments.

10:37

Erin Sackett

We really use rats because they get results. And not only are they as capable in scent detection as dogs, but they're better for certain scenarios. So, it's not about scenting over distance as much. Like, you wouldn't ask a rat to tell you what's in a trash can like a football field away. Right? It's more about sorting through smells. So, imagine being able to sniff a full trash can and then being able to tell me what every item inside is. That's more what our rats and dogs do. But so, we use rats specifically because not only are they less expensive than dogs, dogs get very handler dependent. They form very strong bonds, understandably. Anyone who's had a dog knows that.

11:26

Erin Sackett

But that can be a detriment sometimes, like if their handler gets sick or is maybe from a different country, so they want to go home for the holidays, then that dog is out of commission as well. Versus our rats, while they have their favorite handlers, at the end of the day, they really don't care as long as they get their treats, which I respect. There's plenty of work for everyone. Right? Like, we really try to stress it's not dogs or rats. It's like different tools for different jobs.

11:54

Jordan Tyler

We do love a clear job description and work that plays to our strengths. So, to quickly recap, APOPO is a nonprofit organization that trains animals on scent detection so they can help advance human health and safety in various creative ways. For APOPO’s HeroRATs program, there are four distinct ways African giant pouched rats are being trained: detecting landmines so people can live and raise animals without worry; screening samples for disease, right now they're focused on tuberculosis; identifying trafficked wildlife products before they can be bought or sold; and assisting with search and rescue missions. It's pretty sweet. Right? I can't even do any of those things. But I digress. Let's learn more, starting with landmine detection.

12:50

Jordan Tyler

In: 2024

13:14

Erin Sackett

I believe a third of the countries in the world still have leftover landmines left behind from conflicts—conflicts that are often done twenty to thirty years ago, right?—but the problem is that landmines are very cheap to mass produce and to throw down in the ground and then forget about and move on. But they're very expensive to remove. They will send in a manual deminer who sweeps the ground with a metal detector. And that's very slow going because for every chunk of metal you find, you have to treat it like it might be a landmine. So you're going in like a paleontologist with a toothbrush, and you're carefully extracting it. You're lifting the dirt, your heart's in your chest, and you pull it up, and it's just a bottle cap or an old bullet. And you have to do that again and again.

14:04

Jordan Tyler

This is where HeroRATs come in to save the day.

14:08

Erin Sackett

We started our nonprofit specifically to tackle a solution for removing them quickly and inexpensively. So, it takes a manual deminer with a metal detector about four days to clear an area the size of a tennis court, whereas our rats can do that in thirty minutes because they're just sniffing for the smell of TNT, right? Now that's especially important because as military technology increases, we're starting to use plastic more and more instead of metal, so pretty soon not even the metal detectors will work. So, there's a lot of different technologies, but we've found scent detection to be the most consistently reliable. We've never missed a landmine. Rats do not set off landmines. We sometimes get jokes about that like, “Oh, are the rats defusing the mines? Are you just blowing up rats?” Like, no, no, please no! They're our co-workers!

15:06

Erin Sackett

I would never! We have never lost a rat to a landmine, thank goodness. One of our boys, Ronan, you can see him on our website, just set a new Guinness Book of World Records. Like, he's in the book for the most landmines detected by a rat. So, in just four years, he found 109 landmines, whoop-whoop!

15:28

Jordan Tyler

With the help of HeroRATs, these landmines are being detected more quickly and safely detonated before they can harm anyone, including the rats. Now once these landmines are cleared, locals are able to use the land for farming and ranching, turning formerly off-limits areas into areas of opportunity.

15:46

Erin Sackett

So our rats are just finding the landmines. And then once they find one, they very gently dig, is like their indication behavior, not to unearth the landmine, but just, like, as a clear, “I found something.” And then everything stops. We plant a little flag. We yoink the rat out of there, all the humans. And then a deminer will come in and unearth it. And so, what they'll actually do is they will pick it up very carefully, very slowly and gently, take it over to a pit with all the other landmines we've found, cover it in sandbags, and then detonate it. It's very exciting and kind of terrifying.

16:24

Jordan Tyler

How fun! Now, the HeroRATs don't only detect landmines; they can also screen for disease. According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis remains a leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. It's among the top 10 causes of death overall, globally, and screening for it isn't always easy. These HeroRATs, however, are changing the game.

16:50

Erin Sackett

So we started this a few years after we started with landmines. We were amazed and we were clearing such headway and finding so much with rats, we started to look at other places we could apply this, right? Where else can we use scent detection? And pretty much everything has a scent. One of the biggest needs in humanitarian work is disease, specifically with tuberculosis, which is a huge problem specifically in Africa. I think in The US and other Western countries, we're used to thinking of tuberculosis as a very Victorian disease, which is very much not the case. It is just that it's much easier to treat in the West than it is in Africa. So here, if we start feeling a little under the weather, they can do all sorts of tests.

17:38

Erin Sackett

They can literally just send us into a hospital, and a little machine beeps a yes or no, and then you get treated, right? But in Africa, especially in smaller or more remote areas, places that are maybe running on a generator, some of those machines that do those diagnostic tests do not work because they need that temperature dependency, or they're just really expensive and you can't afford that. They're also more difficult to detect if a patient is HIV positive, which is also a huge issue in Africa. We've trained our rats specifically on the scent of tuberculosis. And so instead of being slowed down by like having to search through a microscope, right? So, one technician can look at about 10 samples in an eight-hour period.

18:27

Erin Sackett

But our rats, because they're just going by smell, can just work down a line, like little assembly line, and do a 100 samples—that's a 100 different people—in about twenty minutes. And I wouldn't have believed it if I haven't seen myself, but they just plow their way through it. So, instead of one tech doing 10 samples a day, we're doing 100 samples easy in twenty minutes, and then the rats are off for their midday nap.

18:55

Jordan Tyler

Erin even mentioned that by screening for tuberculosis by scent, HeroRATs are even able to reduce the number of false negatives, meaning someone who tests negative but actually does have the disease.

19:08

Erin Sackett

So they found in, like, sub-Saharan Africa that public clinics send home about 50% of all TB-positive patients with a wrong diagnosis. So we've been able to raise that detection rate by 40% in partner clinics. We have found, I think, 31,000 additional people who otherwise wouldn't have been diagnosed. Because the lab is doing the actual diagnosis, unfortunately, the rat can't be in a little white coat. Right? Not yet. Not yet. Someday.

19:39

Jordan Tyler

Truly incredible life changing work. And if you thought these rats were already busy, they're not done yet. More recently, APOPO has been training its HeroRATs to detect products of poaching, including pangolin scales—which if you've not seen a pangolin, go look it up right now, I promise you will not regret it—but they can also detect things like ivory from elephant tusks and a few other things. This detection work is also critical considering the multi-million-dollar global market for trafficked wildlife.

20:13

Erin Sackett

Wildlife trafficking is illegal poaching, smuggling, trade, and sale of protected wildlife species, and there's not a region in the world that's uninvolved in this. It's international, it's organized crime, and it's one of the fourth-largest organized crime economies in the world. And we want to prevent it as much as possible because that is natural resources and all that works together, right? In hidden ways to support our ecologies and protect communities. So really, it's these small communities that are affected by wildlife trafficking as much as it is the populations of animals. And a single rat can be trained on multiple scents without losing any accuracy. So, each of our rats is trained on five different scents. That's elephant ivory, pangolin scale, rhino horn, giraffe hide and bone, and African blackwood.

21:10

Erin Sackett

Pangolins are the number one most trafficked animal in the world, and their populations are dropping violently, I would say. And, of course, giraffe populations are dropping dramatically. That's not something we hear about as much in the world, but they are being poached for both their hide and their bone. And African blackwood is a very slow-growing tree that's prized by woodturners for creating, I believe, wind instruments. So, we work to detect these scents.

21:40

Jordan Tyler

So these HeroRATs are helping safeguard not only human health and safety through their detection of landmines and tuberculosis, but they're also helping conserve endangered wildlife and resources and, as a result, the health of our natural ecosystems. But there's one more thing HeroRATs can do, and it's to support human search and rescue missions.

22:03

Erin Sackett

Specifically earthquake. So, the focus of that program is finding injured people quickly during, like, mass-casualty building disasters, specifically. So, our rats are trained on a bunch of different volunteers, basically, to constantly get the smell and diversity of the expanse of the human condition. Right? So the rats are sent into the buildings alone. They have a little backpack on. It's the cutest thing on the planet. The backpack has a speaker and a little GPS device.

22:34

Erin Sackett

And so they go in, they're trained to search for people, and when they find a person, they then trigger like a little mechanism that activates a camera and that speaker someone can then talk to whoever the rat found and try to communicate, which I imagine must feel like a fever dream to be lying in an earthquake rubble, and all of a sudden, like, you hear a voice and you look up and there's a rat in the backpack, and you're like, “That's it. I'm dead.”

23:04

Jordan Tyler

God, is that you?

23:08

Erin Sackett

Yeah. Is that you? Okay. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I guess this is nice. Yeah. And then from there, the rat just waddles their way back to the handler, and then people know where to start digging to help people, and they also know what condition they're in. So, that's still in development, but what a beautiful, weird thing.

23:31

Jordan Tyler

Perfectly said. Yeah, perfectly said. I couldn't have said it better. I also do love the idea of a rat, you know, meeting, you know, a new group of people. He's being trained on how to smell out, you know, different humans. And he's like, “Oh, this is a new flavor of BO that I haven't smelled before. Let me just tuck that away.”

23:51

Erin Sackett

“Oh, I like that… spicy.”

23:54

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. Yeah. “Oh, this one's a little sweet.” And it's like, I can just it's probably a good thing that we can't talk with them because I would have so many questions. They would get annoyed.

24:04

Erin Sackett

Oh, right. Like, how do you think we would categorize the world if we defined everything by scent? Like, trying to define what a human is by our smell? Like, oh, I guess all we are is a bag of dirty clothes, really, the end of the day.

24:20

Jordan Tyler

Just some dead skin cells and a bag of dirty clothes. I mean, is there anything these rats can't do? It really makes you think. Like, how do you even train a rat to do these things, and how do you know which rat to place on which job?

24:38

Erin Sackett

So, we start normally with a trained mother. So, she's already completely tamed. She's comfortable with humans. When she has a litter, we start very slow. So, we have our hands in the den with them so the pups can see: mom's not scared of humans. When she starts weaning, we do a lot more handling. We have a man, his name is Uncle Albert, and his entire job is to wear overalls covered in pockets, and he just carries baby rats around all day. From there, they're assigned to a trainer who normally gets, like, a litter at a time, so about four three to four rats. And that trainer introduces them to, like, basic scent detection and things. Just very elementals, the ABCs of how to be a HeroRAT. But the trainer is the one who names them to help build that bond.

25:29

Erin Sackett

And once they get that basic scent detection training down, they get sorted based on their individual aptitude and need. So, if a rat is a lot more confident in any environment, they're going to go to mine action because they're always going to be outdoors and, like, constantly doing their thing in new spots. But if you're a little more timid, you might go to a tuberculosis clinic because you're just going to live in air-conditioned comfort all the time in a clinic and just work in between naps. From there, it's just career specific training, and they always have to pass tests. If they fail a test, it's they just go back to school and repeat it over and over until they can. And then from there, they're sent to their country of operation where they're going to live out the rest of their lives.

26:18

Erin Sackett

So, the rats are constantly trained even while they're working. They're constantly being tested and trained again to make sure that they're retaining their knowledge and that we're not missing anything in the field. We're not like, “Alright. You're graduated. Here's your gold star. Good luck. Don't kill anyone.”

26:37

Jordan Tyler

Erin also shared the rats train in 30-minute bursts every weekday morning. They get plenty of rest on the weekends and receive incentives by way of treats as they're training and working. Positive reinforcement. Right? Works on me too. So, it's clear APOPO takes really great care of these rats and trains and employs them in very mindful ways. But let's go a little bit deeper. How does APOPO ensure that these rats are not only safe and trained, but also happy and healthy?

27:06

Erin Sackett

So, that starts with when we take them out first thing in the morning, you do a life check and you check over everything about them. And then they get weighed every day because that's going to be the first sign past behavior that something is wrong with them. That's where it's going to show. They are often spayed or neutered before coming into their country of operation, because it is pretty difficult sometimes to convince countries that we should be importing rats. I can't imagine why that would be a difficult sell, but here we are. So, we do that. We have to convince them we're not coming to make babies. We're not just going to release them into the Florida Everglades. But they have a vet appointment once a month. So, in reality that looks like—this used to be my position—

27:54

Erin Sackett

So, it would be like ten hour days with travel carriers stacking from floor to ceiling. Yeah. So it's very important they get their vet checks once a month. And as they get older, sometimes that's more frequently, just depending on what they need. So, we take very serious measures to keep them safe and comfortable. No matter what field they're in, the handlers are constantly evaluating their gait, their behavior, fecal changes. The biggest risk is actually the environment more than anything else because they're native to East and Southern Africa, which is pretty warm and humid and tropical. They really like a temperature range in between 70 to 90 degrees. So, that means wherever else they go in the world, they have to be kept in those parameters. And that can be difficult, but, this is the thing we take probably the most seriously.

28:42

Erin Sackett

So everyone else will be sweating under the hot sun, and meanwhile, the rats are in a van with full air conditioning, just like lounging in between shifts. They get like tents set up for them and we have all the smart parameters so our phones blow up if it goes a degree over the temperature should be. Yeah. Yeah. And they're always watched for discomfort. And since they are crepuscular and nocturnal, we rub sunscreen on their ears and tails just to keep them safe. They come first. They come first, and they know it.

29:17

Jordan Tyler

Okay, divas. Now once they've put in their time on the job, HeroRATs are set up with a pretty cushy retirement, according to Erin.

29:25

Erin Sackett

And they work until they physically are prevented from doing so, as in like their body starts breaking down over time. Right? So, right around 6- to 8-years-old, you start seeing them slow down. The thing is they like to work. It's good mental stimulation. So even when they're retired, we sometimes continue training and giving those games because when a rat is given the opportunity to work, even if they're not reinforced, they will often choose to do so because they genuinely seem to enjoy it. So, after they retire, they continue getting the full pension package: health benefits, housing, full meals, exercise, and enrichment, and then we care to them.

30:11

Jordan Tyler

Kinda like Social Security for rats. We love to see it.

30:15

Erin Sackett

I have tried taking retired home rats with me, and they will not let me. But if they won't let me, they probably won't let anyone else either. I knew it was coming. I had to let you down gently.

30:26

Jordan Tyler

Alright. Well, thanks for asking. Now, Erin, as we wind down today, what's one surprising thing about working with these rats that you think people would want to know or should know?

30:39

Erin Sackett

The thing people don't even think about is when they're working in the field, when the rats indicate, they're not reinforced every time they indicate. So, if they indicate they found a landmine, it takes a long time for us to verify that. And at that point, the rat's brain has already moved on. We don't have the capacity to tell them, “Oh, you found it an hour ago and you're getting the treat now.” So, we have to plant samples of, like, inert TNT while we're working, and then we reinforce the rats for those. Because if we just treated them every time they indicated, they'd learn really fast. They can get food for just pretending to find landmines. So that's the same in all fields. So, when the rats are working, they might go for hours without getting reinforced. Right?

31:30

Erin Sackett

And they're taking breaks and everything in between, but that just tells us more than anything that they enjoy the mental engagement. It's really, it's a game to them. Right? So, it's funny because, like, the rats have no idea the importance of what they're doing, like how strange it must seem to them. In their minds, they just know if they find a smell, they get a treat sometimes, and that's enough to keep working. They have no idea what a landmine is or that they're changing lives.

31:59

Jordan Tyler

It's really comforting to know that I'm not the only one who needs instant gratification. But also, when I do a really good job, I want credit. Right? These guys don't even need the credit... What humble heroes. Now this episode has focused mostly on the rats themselves, but we also owe it to HeroRATs handlers for the incredible work they do and the lives they save every day. Not only does the program help address important human health and animal conservation issues, but it also provides meaningful jobs to people around the world.

32:31

Erin Sackett

I just want to shout out our incredible handlers who've made the work we do possible, especially because the people we hire and train to become rat handlers are employed directly from the areas we're working. So, to us, we can be as passionate as we want, right? But we're still not from those areas. We're not from those communities. But our handlers and so many of our management started in those areas. Those are their communities, their homes, and they do incredibly hard work to make their country safe again. Everyone knows someone who's been affected by the areas they're working in. Right? It's personal. It's not just a job. And without their dedication and perspective, both in operations and, again, in strategy and management, our rats would never be able to be as effective as they are.

33:15

Erin Sackett

So I'm really proud to tell you about their work, because at the end of the day, this isn't just a story about rats, right? It's very human. And I'd like to think that out of all the differences and similarities between humans and rats, the most notable is our tenacity above all. We're more alike than we are different.

33:36

Jordan Tyler

I really love that message. So, Erin, how can people learn more about the work that APOPO and HeroRATs are doing, and how can we support this work?

33:49

Erin Sackett

So, we have a website, www.apopo.org, where you can check out all our work but also help support us. And that can be either through, just, like, small donations, donating enough to buy a couple of bananas as a rat-thank-you. Or even doing a digital adoption. So, what you would do is you would choose your rat online. You can get regular update emails that have, like, info on what your rat has found, right? And updates on their favorite snacks and, like, cute facts too, but also, like, “Hey, Baraka found four landmines this month.”

34:26

Jordan Tyler

So while you may not be able to physically adopt a retired rat, you can symbolically adopt a working HeroRAT, which is also pretty amazing. People can also buy them little gifts or sponsor the cost of a health check for these rats. So, this includes things like a basket of bananas as a little treat. A “love bomb,” which pays for the explosives used to safely detonate landmines in part unearthed thanks to HeroRATs. And then there's an option, “dinner for two,” which is described as a romantic dinner for two to support our breeding program. Which is just… it's like, chef's kiss, whoever came up with that. There's a variety of other clever ways to support the program, and we have their website linked in the show notes for today's episode. So definitely go check that out.

35:18

Erin Sackett

Of course, if you can't support us with a financial donation, which is always appreciated, just as valid and just as helpful is reaching out to us on social media and, like, even just liking the post. And, of course, just having conversations with friends. Like, talk about these weird rats that find landmines and then your friend’s more likely the next time they hear about us to check out our website, and maybe they can donate in your stead.

35:45

Jordan Tyler

Trust me when I say there are more cute videos of rats having little snacks than you could ever need on APOPO’s Instagram. So, if you're having a rough day, highly recommend taking a virtual trip over there. We've linked Apopo's website and social media profiles in the show notes for today's episode. So, go check those out. But before we wrap up, let's hear from Dr. Jen Parsons one more time about why the HeroRATs initiative is so powerful.

36:14

Dr. Jen Parsons

That it's such a heartwarming program. It—I feel like it takes that whole concept of harmony and balance and coexisting, you know, peacefully just one step further. Because what they've done is they've they recognize and understand the natural abilities of one particular type of rat, right—the pouched rat—combined with their tendency to coexist well with humans. And they and they've done this to ultimately save thousands of human lives worldwide. They purposely selected a particular type of rat, and they worked with it under really mindful, well-thought-out circumstances. And they also put a ton of care inside not only the work that the rats can do in saving people's lives, but also into the care of the rats themselves.

36:59

Dr. Jen Parsons

So how they're housed, how they're breeding, you know, breeding and pup raising program is working, their diet and nutrition, which again, I've been talking a ton about them—with them about. Their nutrition program is already really amazing and they really care about giving them the best care possible. I think it's also amazing to look at programs that can benefit humans and animals at the same time. And so not only is it doing critical life-saving work for people, but the HeroRATs can also serve as poster children and ambassadors for all of the good that rodents do in the world in general. So it's just this good, feel-good story all around.

37:35

Jordan Tyler

So, the next time someone starts dissing on rats, you can politely inform them that somewhere in this big wide world, there is a rat in tiny tactical gear, with rocks in its cheeks clearing landmines, screening for disease, protecting endangered species, or helping rescue somebody from disaster. I don't know about y'all, but that doesn't sound all too bad to me. Wherever you stand on the rat appreciation spectrum, today's conversation is a powerful reminder that sometimes the most overlooked, underestimated creatures are the ones capable of making the biggest impact. And if you're having a bad day, take Erin’s advice—go check out APOPO’s Instagram and watch a rat stuff an entire banana into its cheeks. Get some perspective.

38:21

Jordan Tyler

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Barking Mad. If you want to learn more about BSM Partners, please visit us at www.bsmpartners.net. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite leading podcast platform and share us with a friend to stay current on the latest pet industry trends and conversations. A huge thank you to Erin Sackett for lending her time and insights today's episode and for bringing us into the wonderful world of rat philanthropy. We'd also like to thank our dedicated team: Ada-Miette Thomas, Neeley Boden, Kait Wright, Cady Wolf, Anna Guilfoyle, and Jacob Parker. A special shout out to Lee Ann Hagerty and Michael Johnson in support of this episode, and to David Perez for our original music in the intro and outro. See you next time!

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