Rats are ‘victims of prejudice’, says Paris councillor

And other stories from the stranger side of life

A rat

Rats are victims of human prejudice and should be renamed to remove the stigma that afflicts them, according to a councillor in Paris. Douchka Markovic, who is responsible for animal welfare and pest control, said the rodents “play an important role in the sewers by evacuating hundreds of tonnes of waste and unblocking the pipes”. Markovic has faced opposition for her views, said The Times, as rodents are “running riot” in the French capital.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.