Sunday, 4 October 2026

Sympathy for a rat in a photograph and the suffering of urban animals

A rat sits on a dark post above the water in a flooded room beside a peeling wall.

A state of emergency has been declared in Venice: the water rose to 187 centimetres in recent days, 20 million euros have already been allocated to clear up after the flood, while the mayor puts the damage at 1 billion euros.

ps I feel terribly sorry for the little rat in the first photograph 😢 for some reason we quite unfairly ignore the sufferings of urban animals, and of rodents in particular

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