Pests

Transcript

Anchor: In a country torn by war, rats and other pests may be a good source of protein for some starving locals but for most Canadians, it's quite a different story...

Arthur Lortie: At night, while we were on guard, we'd hear noises and we'd think it was the enemy or a patrol coming up the hill. But no, it was the rats, making noise in the barbed wire.

Charlie Rees: It was infested, of course. It was war time, you'd get infested. We'd be in the bunkers laying down, now you'd be well covered up and everything else, but you'd feel them running over you.
(Soldier in bunker)

Joseph Niles: Well it was so bad we used to stay awake for past time and shoot at the rats.

Albert Hugh MacBride: I seen one going up one of the poles of the bunker with a Hershey bar in its mouth so... He didn't get the Hershey bar but the guy that ate the Hershey bar he died of, we call it Manchurian fever.

Sheridan "Pat" Patterson: We got fleas from, probably from the rats.

Charles Trudeau: My sleeping bag started to move around so I jumped, you better believe it. I grabbed the bag by the end and out came a snake.
(Soldier shaking out sleeping bag)
(Soldier holding a snake)

Raymond Tremblay: I was afraid of snakes. One night, I fired about 50 shots into one of them.