Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992 TAG: 9202140071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
`RATAPULT' GIVES RODENTS AN UNFORGETTABLE FLING
The rat sniffs up to the narrow metal box, senses food and warmth, and strolls through the narrow entrance. But before its mouth can water, the gnawing nuisance trips an infrared light.Snap!
The rodent has just experienced the Ratapult, a trap that flings the critters up to 50 feet into a cage or bucket.
For centuries rats have skittered their way over land and sea, spreading disease and gobbling crops.
Allen Gross, the Ratapult inventor, wants to send them flying.
"It's so fast you don't really see it, just a blur," said Ann Koenig, a businesswoman who helped Gross develop a manufacturing and marketing plan.
The Ratapult sounds like a "Saturday Night Live" sendup, but backers say it's seriously intended for use at farms, in warehouses or on ships.
Not yet available in stores, it will retail for $350 to $450.
Gross said he built his first trap two years ago and tested it in a friend's warehouse, where it launched 70 rats in two days.
The vaulting vermin lands in a bucket or cage, dazed but unharmed, where he can be turned over to authorities or released in the wild, he said.
Not surprisingly, animal-rights activists are disturbed.
"It sounds medieval and it just sounds cruel," said Lynn Spivak, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "It would certainly cause a certain amount of trauma to the animal to get flung though the air and flopped into a bucket."
But Gross said the catapult is a critical part of the trap. Unlike other rodent traps, the Ratapult resets itself, remaining free of human scent and the smell of death.
It can be set to fling rodents anywhere from a foot to about 50 feet. Longer distances are useful when there's a large rodent population. The proprietor simply plugs in several Ratapults, which fling the rodents into an industrial-sized bin.
Koenig, an avowed rat hater, says the vermin deserve their rotten reputation. She points out that they thrive in sewers, carry disease and are responsible for an annual $1 billion food loss in the United States.
"My instinctive reaction is to recoil and get the hell away from them," Koenig said.
Watch where you aim.