man wins TV for killing 83,000 rats

[Amby 490]

DHAKA, Bangladesh (Sept. 30) - Bangladesh on Wednesday rewarded a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a monthlong campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and reduce the need for food imports.

Mokhairul Islam, 40, won a first prize of a color television for killing some 83,450 rats in the past nine months in Gazipur district near the South Asian country's capital, Dhaka. He collected their tails for proof.

"I am so happy to get this honor," Islam told The Associated Press after receiving a 14-inch television and a certificate amid cheers at an official ceremony packed with 500 farmers and officials. "I had no idea that the government gives prizes for this."

"This is an exciting moment. I will continue to kill them," he vowed.

Officials say the impoverished nation imports some 3 million tons of food annually, while the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that rodents annually destroy 1.5 million to 2 million tons of food.

"We can cut the import of food by at least half if we can succeed in this year's campaign," said Wais Kabir, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council.

He asked everyone, especially farmers, to take on the killing mission as a sport. The government has said it will train mainly farmers and students for this year's campaign.

"Killing rats is not that easy, it needs training," Kabir said.

Islam said he mainly used poison to kill the rats at his poultry farm, and that the cull has paid off as the rodents now scavenged less.

"Previously I needed 33 sacks of poultry feed per week, now I need less than 30," he said.Fakhrul Haque Akanda, a farmer from northern Bangladesh and the second-prize winner, killed some 37,450 rats mostly with traps, some he invented.

"These bloody rats are my enemy, they destroy my gardens," Akanda said.

"Please pray for me so that I can continue my mission, and teach and motivate others to join me," he told the audience before taking his prize, also a television.

Last year, the U.N. World Food Program launched a monthslong food aid project in the country's southeast after a plague of rats devoured rice crops.

http://news.aol.com/article/bagladeshi-man...-wins-tv/694157

[Peikko 1,575]

Tv for tails? Good idea.

[Kittyfang 6]

You just know that PETA is gonna get on this.

[Peikko 1,575]

I don't see how, they don't care what happens to Indian rats.

[natty bumppo 297]

I don't see how, they don't care what happens to Indian rats.

wonder if this could be the beginning of a new faux hair style ... rattail?

[mawilson 2,133]

I don't see how, they don't care what happens to Indian rats.

wonder if this could be the beginning of a new faux hair style ... rattail?

Or you could use rat tails to make ratatouille

[natty bumppo 297]

I don't see how, they don't care what happens to Indian rats.

wonder if this could be the beginning of a new faux hair style ... rattail?

Or you could use rat tails to make ratatouille

can we make a movie ... staring the the rat pack?

[Peikko 1,575]

I love the rat pack - lampooning them is just wrong.

[Darnell 8,479]

rat stew possible, if not use poison. yum ! figure 4 ounces of dressed meat per rat, 83000 rats? wow.

Edited October 1, 2009 by Darnell

[Nagishkaw 510]

Collecting tails is a sign he is a pack rat.

[almaty 19]

poor rats

[Ban Hammer 13,678]

Tv for tails? Good idea.

then that means bosco has enough to open his own store

[NArocks 13]

amby where do you find this #######

[Amby 490]

amby where do you find this #######

I like to entertain myself with some weird news each day. Makes me feel more normal

[meowmeowmeow 1]

don't they eat rats in cambodia, remember reading that people bought rat meat versus other types of meat because it was cheaper...