Mary Douglas: Mother of Rat Fancy
Rat Fancy grew out of a most violent and surprising place past. The Brown Rat, which arrived in England in the early 1800s, was larger and hardier than the native Black Rat, and flourished to the point that the rat population swelled to overwhelming amounts. Queen Victoria hired rat catchers such as the infamous Jack Black to save the people of England from the growing number of
rodents.
Sometimes rat catchers sold their captives to rat-baiting pits instead of killing them immediately. The cruel sport served two purposes; a way of killing excess rats that had been caught and an outlet for the rising frustration from the people at the increase of the rat population. It was particularly popular in London and involved placing a large number of rats in an enclosure with a dog. The dog would then proceed to destroy as many rats as possible, and the one who killed the largest number in the shortest time was declared the winner.
Occasionally a particular rat with interesting markings would be saved from the horrors of the rat-baiting pit. These lucky individuals would be the first of the fancy rats to be domesticated as companions. Ironically, it was Jack Black the rat catcher who played a pivotal role in igniting the craze. He noticed that a white rat attracted quite a bit of attention from admiring young women. Rather than sell the albino animal, Black decided to try breeding her. Many of the earliest fancy rats were her white, spotted, and hooded descendants.
“The fancy” is a term derived from “fantasy.” A fancier could mean someone who simply enjoyed a particular thing, or, as one fancier more elaborately put it, “one who takes a great delight in establishing pedigrees, strains, and pure breeds.”[1] Rabbits, cats and cavies were at the end of the nineteenth century the favorites amongst fanciers. Before long, mice and and finally rats caught on.
In 1901 a young socialite named Mary Douglas got permission from the National Mouse Club to enter her beloved pet hooded rat into a show. Surprisingly the rat won, and suddenly England was gripped by the rat fancy. The pet rat had arrived, but their widespread popularity wouldn't last for long. The National Mouse Club eagerly renamed itself the National Rat and Mouse Club. Ladies like Mary Douglas socialized with rats sitting on their laps and walked their pets on leashes. Mary “the mother of rat fancy” herself advocated tirelessly for the maligned animal until her death nearly 20 years later.
Even during these heady days of rat adoration, not all was well. It’s telling that Queen Victoria, continued to employ rat catchers to decimate their non-fancy brethren. And like Mother Mary herself, people who wanted to acquire fancy rats had to buy them from these rat catchers or from naturalists who were starting to use the animals as test subjects for genetics and a growing number of other scientific theories.
When Mary Douglas died in 1920, rat fancy in England faded along with her. The society of fanciers reverted to the National Mouse Club in 1929 and keeping rats as pets remained a niche hobby for decades. But Mother Mary had helped put the rat in the limelight for a bright shining moment. For the first time, the people of England had questioned whether killing and torturing rats was necessary. They had opened themselves up to discovering the incredible personalities of rats and fallen in love. It would be sometime before rats would become favorite household companions once more, rivaling cats, dogs, rabbitts and mice for the hearts of families everywhere.
[1] W.L. Langley. “What is a Fancier? Attractions of the Fancy,” Fur and Feather, 1 October 1915, o. 226.
