2,012 kids missing in the Czech Republic

According to this article, for the approaching International Missing Children’s Day on May 25, the Czechs did a count of all their missing kids and discovered there 2,012. However, “95.6 percent of missing children were found thanks to the public’s assistance last year.”

I checked the Interpol missing people registry and found only six Czech cases, four of which were adults. But I can’t read Czech, so most sources on the subject would be denied me. The country is relatively prosperous; I don’t know if human trafficking is a big problem there.

The article also talks about the rate of child abuse in the Czech Republic:

Thirty-six percent of reported cases of child maltreatment were reported in incomplete families without the father. The total number of cases of child maltreatment uncovered last year was 632 higher than in 2009.

The number of cases of reported maltreatment of children under one year doubled to 315 last year.

I wonder if this rapid increase of child abuse cases is simply the result of better reporting. I sure hope so.

I found this article from 2009 which had a lot of statistics as to what children go missing and why. It mentions the establishment of an Amber Alert type system to help find the kids.

Two new members of the family

I mentioned before that one of my pet rats had a tumor. I took her to the vet awhile back to see if she was suffering. He said he didn’t think so. Well, the tumor then got so big that she couldn’t really walk properly anymore, so I decided it was time to put her to sleep. She had a good life. Rest in peace, Gypsy.

Michael and I decided to buy a pair of rats to keep the remaining one, Harriet, company. We got two at the pet store on Friday. They are very young, only about one-half or one-third the size they will be as grownups. There’s an all-brown one (the first solid-color rat we’ve ever had) and a black and white one. Being total geeks, we named them after the Firefox browser. (Michael rejected by “Bonnie and Clyde” suggestion, pointing out that both rats are females and it’s not terribly creative anyway.) Fox is brown one — it seemed appropriate for her coloring. Fire was named by default.

We’re still socializing them and there was a great deal of pecking-order-establishing going on in the cage yesterday. But we think they’ll work out fine.