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Flooding Drives March Of Mice In Central China - Eyewitnesses Describe Hills, Roads Black W. Rodents

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hatrack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:20 PM
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Flooding Drives March Of Mice In Central China - Eyewitnesses Describe Hills, Roads Black W. Rodents
EDIT

A plague of 2 billion mice in central China was described just days ago as being so bad that it resembled a scene from a horror movie with roads and hillsides turned black with rodents.

But in a remarkable display of entrepreneurship, businessmen are catching, shipping and selling the eastern field mice, also known locally as rats, to the southern city of Guangzhou, where restaurants are reportedly offering rodent banquets to diners notorious for their unusual tastes.

"Recently there have been a lot of rats ... Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good," the China News Service quoted a vendor as saying. According to Beijing News, businessmen from Guangzhou - the provincial capital of Guangdong - were offering 6 yuan (40 pence) for a kilogramme of live rodents.

The infestation was caused by some of the worst flooding in 50 years in central China. In the past two weeks, more than 400 people have died, 105 are missing and more than 3 million have been forced to evacuate their homes as a result of the deluge. To ease pressure on rivers and plains, the giant Three Gorges dam released water to Dongting Lake in Hunan Province. After months of drought, the area was suddenly flooded, driving countless millions of rodents from their mouse holes.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2127846,00.html
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CottonBear Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:22 PM
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1. I saw a video of the mice on TV: it was a river of mice pouring through the towns & fields.
Edited on Tue Jul-17-07 12:22 PM by CottonBear
:scared:

It was biblical in scale and quantity, a true plague. :(
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phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:23 PM
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2. That's nice and biblical.
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BonnieJW Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:29 PM
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3. Couldn't happen to a nicer country.
I wonder how long it will be before we find rats in Chinese exports to the US?
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havocmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:30 PM
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4. Got cats?
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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:30 PM
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5. Sounds like China might be a nice place to ship our excess population
of domestic cats in the US, rather than euthanizing them at the pound.......oh, wait. They eat them over there, don't they?

No wonder they have a mouse problem.
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flashl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:36 PM
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6. If history is a teacher
Then, the outbreak of the deadly bubonic plague first occurred in China. China then was a trading hub, today China is a trading hub.

My point is, if there is a problem, it will hardly remain it China.
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Benhurst Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:37 PM
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7. Northern Virginia will undoubtedly face a similar plague
when Bush gets thrown out of the White House.
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Ganja Ninja Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 12:44 PM
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8. Watch for a special on chicken nuggets at McDonald's.
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emilyg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-17-07 01:08 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. LOL
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