"Ratatouille" sends some scurrying to pet store

Rats! They've always had an image problem. Dirty, disease magnets. Sewer-dwelling scavengers. Their name is even shorthand for "snitch."

But will Remy, the animated star of the hit summer movie "Ratatouille," make pet rats the rage?

"It's little kids who want them as pets. The parents are ... squeamish about it," said Renald Achille, who works at Beverly's Pet Center in Pembroke Pines, Fla., where rat sales are on the rise.

Jennifer Mulle, an associate at PetSmart, said teenagers come in with their parents lobbying for pet rats.

"After the third or fourth time, the parents give up," she said.

While there's no rush on rats yet, some pet stores are reporting sales of "Ratatouille" products, such as treats and toys. And veterinarians are bracing for a surge of sick and abandoned rats. (Think Dalmatians after "101 Dalmatians," or clown fish after "Finding Nemo.")

"I'm waiting for the rats to hit," said Dr. Kristin Sinclair, a veterinarian with about 10 rat patients. "People often go out and get them as an impulse buy. We end up with sick critters."

Sinclair has four rats at home — "Ewww ... is the typical reaction," she said. But, she added, "they're very clean. They're very friendly. When anyone walks by, they'll run to the corner of the cage. It's like, 'Hi, hi, hi, give me cookies.' They love to be held."

Madison Busto, 5, loves "Ratatouille" because she thinks Remy looks just like Sapphire, one of her two pet rats.

"Sapphire will lick you to death," said Madison's mother, Jeanine Busto. "My daughter can do anything to these rats. ... She dresses them up with hair ties and little bows."

Unlike the common street rat, domesticated rats bred as pets or for medical research are neither dirty nor likely to spread disease. They rarely bite, veterinarians said.

Because of the movie, "I think a lot of kids will ask for a pet rat. I think a lot of parents will say no," said veterinarian Dr. Greg Rupp. "When we go to schools for career day and we pull out a rat, everyone screams. Afterward, the kids want to come up and pet them. But the adults stay away."

Not everyone. Across the U.S. and Europe, there are rat clubs and rat shows, even a rat fan club. And it's lucky for Remy, an aspiring chef, that he lives in Paris. At some places in China, rat is dinner.

Sarah Tingle's rats, Hammy and Mort, were headed for the snake tank when she rescued them from pet stores. Now they live in a spacious cage with bedding, a hammock, an exercise wheel and chew toys.

"They're wonderful pets," said Tingle, 33, who blames the dirty rat myth on "the whole bubonic plague thing. It was the fleas, not the rats, who spread the plague."

Arlene Wilson rarely sees rats at her pet boarding and day care, Pet Nanny Resort.

"People are still squeamish about them," said Wilson, who loved her pet rat growing up in an apartment in New York. "Rats and snakes are in the same boat."

Busto agreed. "Everybody has hang-ups with rats." However, she added hopefully, "Maybe the movie will help give them a better reputation."