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Subscribe to RSSWhere do you think you would draw the line when it comes to taking a job? What is the worst job you've ever had? Read more about rat catchers here.
Rafiq Maqbool / AP
In this photo taken on May 14, 2010, an unidentified rat catcher tosses a rat that he killed in the outskirts of Mumbai, India. The competition for rat catcher jobs in Mumbai is stiff. They must be able to lift a 110 pound sack and run a few miles. They must demonstrate their ability to catch and kill a rat in the dark within ten minutes. Each rat catcher must kill 30 rats a night, six nights a week. If he doesn't make the quota, he doesn't get paid.
Rafiq Maqbool / AP
In this photo taken on May 28, 2010, Sabid Ali Sheikh, a rat catcher searches for rats in Mumbai, India.
Rafiq Maqbool / AP
In this photo taken May 14, 2010, Sabid Ali Sheikh, a rat catcher, tries to kill a rat in the outskirts of Mumbai, India.
Rafiq Maqbool / AP
In this photo taken on Nov. 2, 2010, Wasim Sheikh, Sabid Ali Sheikh's son, holds rats he killed along with his father, a rat catcher in Mumbai, India. All around him, as India's richest city quickly gets richer, Sabid Ali Sheikh and his sons remain trapped in a painfully slow cycle of aspiration. He hopes merely that his children get as lucky a break as he did. "I'm happy with what I have. I came to Bombay. I had nothing. I got this job," he said. "Now I pray to God that all my sons get employed."
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I suppose some organization will say this is cruelty to animals.
hey george w...way to be whiner!!!
Naaaaaa check out how to cook them! http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/cooked-rats-actually-look-pretty-good.html
good eating.. and as long as the temp is right, gets rid of any nasty bugs.. actually a good way to provide protine for a nation over populated and wont eat cow
Pretty damn bad, when someone considers themselvessuccessful after securing a job killing rats with a stick. And, he hopes his sons are as successful has he is.
If that's all there was, I'd take the job. Makes me thankful for all I have. Compared to the lives these guys live, I live like a King.
It is his lot in life and he is happy that he is able to provide for his family. He is working for what he gets, people here would just sit around and want the government to give them money. That is why anyone that is on welfare or getting government money here should be required to do some job for the general population, picking up garbage, cutting grass, pulling weeds, whatever it is.
They may eat the rats, or someone else might. I know in China they eat the mice. When they get an infestation of mice in the rice fields, they catch them and then sell them to the local resturants. Had an agreement with my wife when we lived in China, no RATS, CATS or DOGS on the dinner table.
The title of the article and the puerile question "What's the worst job you ever had?" say more about the msnbc reporters that the persons who are honestly employed and bringing home a wage to feed the family. If there are rats and you have the money and workforce to combat the problem, it doesn't seem "icky" at all. I'll bet that they would love it in New York if the city could afford to hire people to kill the rats!
The fact that reporters are so unconnected from any life apart from elitest thinking of school makes me wonder about this news magazine.
Hi there M Hobrook,
My own experience of bucking hay bales, unloading sacks of grain and mucking twenty-five stalls a day in a barn in which I would frequently hit a rats' nest with my pitchfork is what led me to the title of "Dirty Job," as my vivid memories of roughly thirty rats jumping out of the nest and running over my feet and up my legs left me more than a little creeped out. I also found the rat droppings around the barn to be pretty gross as well as the occasional drowned rat in a horse's water bucket that I would find when I went to change its water in the morning.
I needed the work, as I wanted to learn to train and ride horses, and unfortunately I did not have the funds to pay someone to give me those skills while I was in high school or college. During a portion of that time, I also lived in a tack room in a barn, sometimes during the winter months (a long, very personal story which I do not feel comfortable sharing in this environment, but I assure you the details put me in touch with more reality than you would probably like to hear about), so I don't think I would consider myself an elitist. Granted, I didn't need to feed a family, but I worked around others who did feed families on meager earnings from laboring around horses, and I have a very healthy respect for my friends who continue to do that. At that time in life it was how I could earn something that was important to me, as nobody else was going to fund it.
Thanks so much for reading and offering an opinion, though! Conversations educate us all about each other and make the world a better place...I hope!
All the best to you, and a happy early Thanksgiving-
Katie
Katie,
I was once a "Ramp Rat" at an airport. My job was to clean airplanes, mostly DC-9's, but we got the occasional DC-10 or 747 Shortie. It was rough work. I did The Swing Shift, which meant I went to work when most other people were having dinner, had lunch around midnight, and drove home as the sun came up.
We'd wash the outside and clean the inside, scrub the cargo bays, it was cold hard work.
So much better being a phrog.
-Ribbit