Local rat rescue's future uncertain

By Nicole Weis. The Daily NonPareil. Southwest Iowa.

The basement in Jessica Bartunek's house is occupied by rats. Forty-seven of them to be exact, far less than the 110 that lived there a few months ago.

But having rats live beneath her does not disgust Bartunek. In fact, the full-time student and mother of a 6-month-old baby girl is not repulsed at all. She thinks the creatures make excellent pets, which is precisely why she started a pet rat rescue program out of her home almost three years ago.

"Every animal deserves a second chance," Bartunek said. "Rats are incredibly misunderstood; they are incredibly intelligent and among the cleanest small animals. They don't require a lot of space, but they have the attitude and commitment like dogs do. They are very devoted to their owners."

Staff photo/Nicole Weis - Jessica Bartunek, founder of Draconis Rat Rescue, has 82 rats, 11 chinchillas and four ferrets living at her house. Bartunek recently joined Petfinder.com to help the rats and other animals find good homes as pets.

Bartunek founded Draconis Rat Rescue out of her own pocket shortly after working at a pet shop that sold rats. She didn't care for the way the animals were sold as snake food and figured she could find better homes for them than a snake's belly.

Bartunek took in surrenders from previous pet owners and adopted them out for a small fee. She was hoping to increase her adoption rates by joining petfinder.com. When an article in The Daily Nonpareil featured her rat rescue operation in March of this year, her venture became successful.

"(Adoptions) skyrocketed shortly thereafter," Bartunek said. "We had lots of surrenders, but more adoptions."

However, just when Draconis was really starting to take off, Bartunek received a call from a local animal control officer who informed her that Iowa law requires rescue operations that charge money for adoptions to be run on commercial property. Bartunek was told she would have to close her adoption doors by April 14.

"It was pretty much a shocker," Bartunek recalls of hearing the news.

She then posted a message on the Draconis Web site - http://.drac.20m.com- delivering the news to her fellow rat lovers.

In the meantime, Draconis is still accepting surrenders and finding homes for the pet rats via foster care as long as the rats come with cages.

"We've got a bunch into foster care. Quite a few are moving on," Bartunek said.

While she lost more money than she gained while selling rats for adoption because of food and veterinarian costs, Bartunek wants to continue her rescue program especially because of all the support she's received from others.

"I get phone calls and e-mails that say 'We love what you're doing,'" she said. "And the return from the public is what makes it all worthwhile."

...bless her we need more people like this...I hope this story is successful...

Daily Nonpareil - Local rat rescue's future uncertain

technorati tags:pet, rat, draconis, http://.drac.20m.com, rat, rescue, Jessica, Batunek