Student name: Flavio Cachay

Student number: 05B23329

Hero rats?

Heroism is inherent of human history, but what about animals? Attributing human

characteristics to everything is part of human nature, such as saying animals can also be heroes.

Before taking this topic deeper, we must know what a hero is. The Cambridge Dictionary defines

hero as someone that people respect or admire for their actions. This admiration disappears when

the “hero” does it as a work for a retribution, from bounty hunters until everyday policemen.

Let’s discuss the Dainius (2015) article about “heroic rats”. In the mentioned article, trained rats

detect landmines in a cheaper, faster, and safer way. Also, the rats are rewarded when they do a

good job, having good health care and soon retire in nature. For sure, detect a landmine for the

following deactivation is an honorable and risky act. However, thanks to their lightweight, even

the heavier rat cannot activate a landmine. As well, rats are trained for that specific purpose, like

a weapon. Rats do not do it for respect, fame, or glory, they do it for some food. Following the

line, the ones in risk are the trainers who trust blindly in their rats. It is dangerous to let all the

work to someone who cannot even communicate with you. Not detecting all the landmines in a

certain area could conduce to the death of many people. To conclude, training rats was a wise

method to detect landmines. However, rats are just weapons doing their work, while the real

heroes are the trainers, the ones who trust blindly in those little animals.

Dainius. (2015, May 29). Heroic rats sniff out landmines in Africa, could save 1,000s of people

worldwide. Bored Panda. https://www.boredpanda.com/hero-rats-bomb-demining-africa-

apopo