When I was a kid, most of the animals we owned had ear piercings, and it never seemed to bother them — we gave the cows ear tags which were IDs, but more so insecticides, so they were quite likely better off for them. I also remember branding the horn buds off our goat kids — which they definitely did not like, but were also likely better off for having it done.

That said, I’m not so convinced that this rat is better off with his body modification and I’m actually surprised it didn’t bother him. However, the rat’s keeper writes, “it healed quickly and with the tiny jewelery I put in it, he didn’t even notice he had it.”

On one hand, I think we live in a culture of pervasive animal cruelty, be it the simple reality of killing and eating animals, or the even more perverse reality of professing to love animals, keeping one as a slave while having others killed to feed that slave, so I’m not convinced on the scale of things little Dawson the pierced rat is the biggest problem for real animal lovers. On the other hand, I can predict the response to this post already…