Excerpts from, St. Augustine Record, aka, another argument for the absolute necessity of enforced regulations (Elliott Jones, I’m a Rat Man, Vero Beach Press Journal (July 2, 2004). :

1. Handling -
     * Photo depicts man “tossing a rat from one bucket to another:”
          
     * Not sure what an 11/2lb rat is, but a rat shouldn’t be “dangling…by its tail.”

2. Secure environment -
     * An “electrified wire” deters “carnivorous raccoons living in the woods” but, presumably, lets everything else in.
     * Wild rodents are poisoned
          note: Poisoned rats can still walk and can still get in thus infecting and/or attacking the population of rodents enclosed “in cat litter boxes in racks.")
     * Wild “rat snakes” slither in (but not out) with little effort.
          note: any parasites, diseases, etc that a wild snake carries will undoubtedly affect its domestic counterpart and the rats that come into contact with these wild rat snakes can carry the parasites, diseases, etc to their future host if fed live.

3. Veterinary intervention - none
     * They rely on “homegrown medical skills.”

Another note: Although their initial stock was “disease and pest free” they certainly are no longer. If they were, certainly they would not need these measures as stated on their website: