Class helps spay/neuter rescued rats

LOS ALTOS HILLS, Calif., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A California veterinary tech instructor said her students assisted with spaying and neutering 30 domesticated rats rescued from the home of a hoarder.

Sandy Gregory, an instructor at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, said 35 of her students assisted four surgeons with the surgeries Sunday at the school to spay and neuter the rats, which were among 1,500 taken from a home in an incident immortalized on A&E's "Hoarders" in 2010, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported Monday.

"It was my idea to spay and neuter them so they'd make better candidates for adoption," Gregory said. "You have a lot of groups spaying and neutering dogs and cats, like Fix Our Ferals, but there's nobody out there for the rats. Rats get a bad rap as being dirty and attacking people in horror films. But they're just the opposite; they're incredibly sweet, social and very smart."