The Karnimatha Temple in northern India is home to 25,000 rats today, given the end of the 19th century. Legend has it that these rats are the reincarnation of the souls of the locals. They were reborn by the power of a woman named Karnimata.
It's an unusual tourist attraction, but for the local people. Rats are part of their life and legacy. They feel that these rats are their family and that they will become rats after they die.
Their temples are famous all over the world, and people come from all over the world to visit their temples. Bring your shoe covers and walk into the temple with the local barefoot devotees, and you'll see a temple covered with rat droppings and more rats bouncing around. Unlike the rats in the urban stinky gutters, the rats here have clean fur and are well-proportioned, just like pet rats.
Believers here offer a steady stream of fresh milk, corn for the rats to eat, and they drink milk in the same basin as the rats, which they consider to be very holy milk and good for the body. The rats came to eat the believer's supper, which was the supreme honor, and the people rejoiced in being able to eat with the rats.