Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladle’s,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women’s chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats. ...
The locals say wild rats are very different from the urban vermin they consider unfit for the cooking pot. The animals eat other food: rice stalks, the vegetable crops of local farmers, and the roots of wild plants. Common rats are dirty and they scabies on their skin, which is why they are rejected.
After the animals are caught, packed cages are dropped off to be weighed, graded and repacked for export. The locals sell the rats and buy fish instead.
Exported exclusively to Vietnam, rat meat can be grilled, fried, boiled in a soup or minced up in a pate. Apparently, it tastes like pork. See the full BBC article.
I would rather not eat meat at all. I hate the thought of killing a creature for food.
Yet, the same thing occurs when we eat a lettuce.
The aforesaid doesn't apply to eating grain, apart from the seed being unable to form a new plant.
Sigh! Man can't simply live on bread or cake.