“Many animal welfare laws exempt rats and mice. ”

Rats and mice are not exempt in Oregon.

“Also, Animal Hoarding is about more than just numbers- its about the conditions the animals are kept in. ”

In Oregon it is more about numbers, than the conditions the animals are kept in. A person can have perfectly healthy, well fed, clean animals; but if a household has more than 10 animals total, they are guilty of Animal Hoarding.

In Oregon all Animal Hoarding is a felony, and not just a misdemeanor.

“Presumably, you want your snakes to be healthy, ”

Yes, I do want both of my snakes to be healthy, that is part of what was particularly upsetting when my rats were executed. I was then left with nothing to feed my extremely finicky gopher snake at the start of the few months of the year when he will eat.

“so whether you actually care about the rats/mice for their own sakes or not, ”

I do care about my rats/mice. The breeders are semi-pets; some of the rats even had names, I miss them. The rats were healthy, though a bit overcrowded. I started with just 1 pair of rats (Sam and Zoe), but then the rats multiplied when my snake would not eat.

I currently have 5 (recently purchased) mice in a ten gallon tank. I have named the 3 that I want for breeders. The other 2 mice are to be fed to the gopher snake, when he decides to eat.

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