Rat-catchers would often hunt inside the sewers.

Rat-catchers would often hunt inside the sewers.

Rat-catchers were employed in Europe to control rat populations. Keeping the rat population under control was practiced in Europe to prevent the spread of diseases to man, most notoriously the Black Plague and to prevent damage to food supplies. Today this job no longer exists.

Anecdotal reports suggest that some rat-catchers would raise rats instead of catching them in order to increase their eventual payment from the town or city they were employed by. This, and the practice of rat-fights, could have led to rat-breeding and the adoption of the rat as a pet—the fancy rat.

Rat-catchers ran high risks of suffering bites and infections but helped prevent these from spreading to the public. They would capture rats by hand, often with specially-bred vermin terriers, or with traps.

Rats are rarely seen in the open, preferring to hide in holes, haystacks, and dark locations. Payment would be high for catching and selling rats to breeders. A rat-catcher’s risk of being bitten is high, as is the risk of acquiring a disease from a rat bite.

Liverpool Port Sanitary Authority rat-catchers dipping rats in buckets of petrol to kill fleas for plague control. 1900s.

Liverpool Port Sanitary Authority rat-catchers dipping rats in buckets of petrol to kill fleas for plague control. 1900s.

Professional rat-catchers.

Professional rat-catchers. The lower class and uneducated men would have been most likely to do this job as they needed to support themselves and their families.

In this photograph features a group of men are shown standing behind a pile of rats. One of them is holding a cage and many others are holding bucket-like utilities. These rat catchers were supposedly disinfecting Sydney in 1900 of rats to prevent the spread of the bubonic plague in the city. This photograph was taken by Mr. John Degotardi, Jr., photographer from the Department of Public Works.

Sydney, Australia, 1900. This photograph features a group of men shown standing behind a pile of rats. One of them is holding a cage and many others are holding bucket-like utilities. These rat-catchers were supposedly disinfecting Sydney rats to prevent the spread of the bubonic plague in the city.

A heap of rats, c. Jul 1900. Sydney, Australia.

May 1, 1916, France. World War I. Hunting trophy of a dog near the front.

Rat catching children, circa 1916.

Official rat-catcher for Southern Railway with Terriers and quarry. 1924.

(Photo credit: Library of Congress / Australian Archives).