I would concur (and also note that I flagged the video).
Rat Terriers kill rats. Rats are the cause of much of the world’s misery. The other options are to kill rats with traps or with poison. Unless one is vegan or Jain, “Morality” should jump in on the side of the rat killers.
My dog occasionally kills rats, field mice, and other small vermin that she encounters when we are taking walks on undeveloped land. She is a predator–that what she does. That is not what is happening here. Did you see the video?
The dog is apparently being trained to be rat aggressive with a captive rat. While putting the rat in a no win scenario might offend our sense of fair play, if you are in a country where rats do tremendous amounts of damage training working animals to control them is seen as social good, not casual or purposeless brutality.
No, my computer is too slow. But I am familiar with the sport of rat baiting and can imagine a dog having loads of fun doing it. And the result is piles of dead rats–no loss. And I have a dog that is part feist who would be jealous. But for you I’m downloading the video so I can watch it.
Okay, the owner provided a practice rat. (Shrug) It’s what a mother dog or cat would do to train her kids. It’s how they learn.
Rats are bad. Therefore, killing rats is good, so training a dog to kill rats is also good. Taking joy in the success of ones student in performing good behavior is also good, in that it supports the dog’s good behavior. Note the repeated use of the word, “good.” There is little morality in the death of rats (as much as I admire their staying power), beyond Good (dead rats) is Good (disease is not spread and crops are not destroyed).
See that is the thing. If all you want is to control rats on your property, Rat Terriers have to be taught to be rat aggressive in the same way cats do–meaning not at all. They have that instinct reinforced by years of breeding for that trait.
Cats seem to still be governed by some satiety gene. Rat terriers, unburdened by such control, will keep killing rats until there are none left to kill. Though the cats will leave a line of little rat heads on your pillow so you can keep score. :eek:
While the inclination is there working dogs are not genetic automatons and I imagine being given examples to practice on and heaps of praise for successfully and aggressively dispatching a rat will make it more effective and focused vermin killer.
Er, the same way they become more focused frisbie catchers, given the same encouragement. Except frisbies don’t need that neck-breaking shake to subdue them.