The article addresses their status as animals just fine. > Rats were declared a pest in 1950, making rat control mandatory. Rats are a pest because they can s

The article addresses their status as animals just fine. > Rats were declared a pest in 1950, making rat control mandatory. Rats are a pest because they can survive all over the globe, and in transit, as an invasive species, and multiply quickly. Societies all around the world have independently discovered the need for pest control because of how much damage (including spreading disease) they cause and how difficult population control is, and a term for "pest" exists in multiple languages. There are places that treat them far less humanely, and places where non-pest animals are much less protected.