---
title: Kill the Rat! The Most Destructive and Dangerous of Animal Pests
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-the-rat-us-department-of-agriculture-1917/
description: A large rat gnaws grain on a ledge above a border of black rats each marked with a dollar sign, under a headline ordering the viewer to kill it.
section: Collection
---

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3. Kill the Rat! The Most Destructive and Dangerous of Animal Pests

[![Kill the Rat! The Most Destructive and Dangerous of Animal Pests, 1917 US poster: A large rat gnaws grain on a ledge above](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kill-the-rat-us-department-of-agriculture-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kill-the-rat-us-department-of-agriculture-1917.jpg)

# Kill the Rat! The Most Destructive and Dangerous of Animal Pests

A large rat gnaws grain on a ledge above a border of black rats each marked with a dollar sign, under a headline ordering the viewer to kill it. The text ties the animal to disease deaths and to a stated 00,000,000 yearly loss of foodstuffs while America feeds the Allies. The tells are the fear of disease and the epithets 'filthy and dangerous', applied to an animal and tied to the food-conservation effort.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
PLEASE POST CONSPICUOUSLY.

KILL THE RAT!

By spreading fatal diseases the rat has
killed more people than bullets have.
He is just as filthy and dangerous as ever.

THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE AND
DANGEROUS OF ANIMAL PESTS

While America is trying to feed the Allies, this pest
annually destroys foodstuffs in the United States
worth $200,000,000.

POISON RATS!   TRAP RATS!
NEVER LET ONE GO!

MAKE HOUSES, STORES, GRANARIES, ELEVATORS RAT-PROOF

FOR PRACTICAL METHODS OF DESTROYING RATS, APPLY TO
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY,   WASHINGTON, D. C.

[illegible print code, top right]
```

[← Keep Tuberculosis Out of Your Swine](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-tuberculosis-out-of-your-swine-1917/) [Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917/)

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