Taipei - A Taiwan man has been catching rats for 24 years so that his mother can eat what she considers a delicacy at every meal, a newspaper reported Sunday. Hsiao Cheng-hsin, 37, a farmer in Houpi, Tainan County, is nicknamed "Rat Catcher" and is praised as a pious son by his mother's neighbours, the United Daily News reported.
In the last 24 years, Hsiao has caught about 20,000 rats in the fields so his mother could eat rat meat with every meal.
It started 24 years ago when Hsiao was 13 and his mother had surgery to remove gallstones, the paper said.
Hiao's family was poor and had no money to buy nutritious food for his mother, so his father took Hsiao Cheng-hsin to the sugarcane fields to catch rats and make rat soup for his mother. Sometimes they caught a dozen rats a night.
Hsiao's mother said that at first, she was afraid to eat rat. But as she was weak after the operation and needed protein, she forced herself to eat rat meat and eventually fell in love with it.
"Rat meat is tender and delicious," the paper quoted her as saying.
Hsiao's father died 15 years ago. Since then, Hsiao Cheng-hsin has been catching rats alone.
"I catch about 1,000 rats per year. So over the last 24 years, I have caught about 20,000 rats. Besides cooking them for my mother, I also give them away to neighbours and friends and sometimes sell the rats," the United Daily News quoted Hsiao as saying.
