Rats on suicide path in market in Geylang Serai

Rats as big as cat.
Writhing on the mats
Glue on tight, tails and all
Help says one
I am innocent, just passing by
I protest brutality,

On rats, call the spca,
or something ,get me out.
I need to move
into my home
under the streets of Singapore.

RATS were writhing on pieces of cardboard laid out between stalls at the Geylang Serai Temporary Market when pest controllers got there on Thursday morning.

Rows of them were stuck in the green glue, part of traps laid out the night before, in an effort to spring clean the temporary structure, now infamous for the Indian rojak stall which is the focal point of Singapore's worst outbreak of food poisoning.

By noon, pest controllers had cleared away 61 rats, said Mr Kwok Kim Poh, who oversees the day-to-day running of the market for its management committee.

He said the glue strips were laid out after cleaning stopped at 7pm on Wednesday along the stalls 'most popular with the rats', which included fresh vegetables and fruit stalls as well as food stalls like the Indian rojak unit.

Compared to past efforts to bait rats, this was a more effective method of trapping the rodents, he said.

Whether the rats have a role in the food poisoning that has affected at least 144 victims since last Friday and caused two deaths is uncertain.

Preliminary investigations traced the source to a bacteria which attacks raw or partially-cooked seafood, such as the prawn and cuttlefish items served in Indian rojak.

The rodent infestation appears to be concentrated in a wet market situated next to the hawker centre. The rats are said to have come from the sewers running under the temporary market.

Stallholders said that because the cleaners do not work after 7pm, plates with leftover food are left at the centre overnight - drawing the rats.

Direct contact with the rats or their urine and droppings can cause Weil's Disease. This starts with influenza-like symptoms and can end in kidney failure.