New Hampshire shelter faces enor-mouse problem after man surrenders nearly 1,000 rodents
A New Hampshire animal shelter has an enor-mouse problem on its hands
STRATHAM, N.H. (AP) — A group of mice is called a nest, but what do you call 1,000 of them in one animal shelter?
“Crippling,” said Lisa Dennison, executive director of the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is scrambling to care for an overwhelming influx of rapidly reproducing rodents.
It all started Monday when a man arrived saying he wanted to give up 150 mice. But then he clarified: 150 containers of mice, not individual critters. He had 73 mice with him that day, and by Friday morning, about 450 had been transferred to the shelter. Another 500 or so were on the way.
Lined up nose to tail, they’d span more than a football field. There’s enough to give one mouse to every member of the U.S. Congress and the 424-member New Hampshire Legislature combined. And the total is growing thanks to some basic biology. Female mice are sexually mature at roughly six weeks old, gestation lasts about 20 days, and they can mate again 24 hours later.
