I have to say, rats are actually great pets. We've got 30 juvenile rats right now and they are great little animals. Smart as hell. Much better than mice. However, I've been bitten far worse by a rat than any mice. But as long as they're adapted to humans they're a lot of fun.
Granted, we don't tend to keep them around long enough to domesticate them and what human contact they get from me is usually not of the "kind" variety. Nothing makes an intelligent animal warry of you more than giving it septic shock and bringing it to the verge of death.
Baseball bats, metal pipe w/ skilsaw blades welded on the end, home-made maces, all kinds of crazy shit 'round here.
I think the most un-pretty thing I've ever seen was a female possum that got a M500 stuffed in her pouch, lit and exploded. The retards that pulled that one off bragged about it enough that morbid curiosity got the best of me and I had to go look. Disgusting.