Editing Rat (section)

===European cultures===
European associations with the rat are generally negative. For instance, "Rats!" is used as a substitute for various vulgar [[interjection]]s in the English language. These associations do not draw, ''per se'', from any biological or behavioral trait of the rat, but possibly from the association of rats (and [[fleas]]) with the 14th-century medieval plague called the [[Black Death]]. Rats are seen as vicious, unclean, parasitic animals that steal food and spread disease. In 1522, the rats in [[Autun]], [[France]] were charged and put on [[Animal trial|trial]] for destroying crops.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hakaimagazine.com/features/in-defense-of-the-rat/ |title=In Defense of the Rat |last=MacKinnon |first=J. B. |date=September 26, 2023 |website=hakaimagazine.com |publisher=Hakai Magazine |access-date=October 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003061426/https://hakaimagazine.com/features/in-defense-of-the-rat/ 
|archive-date=October 3, 2023}}</ref> However, some people in European cultures keep [[Fancy rat|rats as pets]] and conversely find them to be tame, clean, intelligent, and playful.

Rats are often used in scientific [[experiment]]s; [[animal rights]] activists allege the treatment of rats in this context is cruel. The term "lab rat" is used, typically in a self-effacing manner, to describe a person whose job function requires them to spend a majority of their work time engaged in bench-level research (such as [[postgraduate education|postgraduate students]] in the sciences).

====Terminology====
Rats are frequently blamed for damaging food supplies and other goods, or spreading disease. Their reputation has carried into common parlance: in the [[English language]], "rat" is often an insult or is generally used to signify an unscrupulous character; it is also used, as a synonym for the term ''[[wikt:nark|nark]]'', to mean an individual who works as a police [[informant]] or who has turned [[state's evidence]]. Writer/director [[Preston Sturges]] created the humorous alias "Ratskywatsky" for a soldier who seduced, impregnated, and abandoned the heroine of his 1944 film, ''[[The Miracle of Morgan's Creek]]''. It is a term ([[noun]] and [[verb]]) in criminal slang for an [[informant]] – "to rat on someone" is to betray them by informing the authorities of a [[crime]] or misdeed they committed. Describing a person as "rat-like" usually implies he or she is unattractive and suspicious.

Among [[trade union]]s, the word "rat" is also a term for nonunion employers or breakers of union contracts, and this is why unions use [[inflatable rat]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nj.npri.org/nj98/07/power&privilege.htm |title=Nevada Journal: Louts and the Rat World |publisher=Nj.npri.org |access-date=2012-09-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520200437/http://nj.npri.org/nj98/07/power%26privilege.htm |archive-date=2013-05-20 }}</ref>