The world's first public relations campaign to persuade people that rats have feelings too, and they should learn to love them, has been launched in Paris, where city authorities are waging war to exterminate the four-million strong rodent population.

“Stop the massacre of rats,” is the slogan on posters on the walls of dozens of metro stations, which show pictures of cute rats and declare that rodents “are sensitive individuals” which can “feel emotions.”

The campaign was launched by Paris Animaux Zoopolis, an animal rights group that aims to defend all animals regardless of whether humans like them or not.

The group’s secretary Philippe Reigné said he was not aware of any other major campaigns to laud the merits of the much-maligned rodent and that the Paris one may be a world first.

“It is a political message which targets the Paris city hall, the prefecture of police, and the exterminators (of rats),” he said.

“Rats should not be seen as synonymous with filth,” he said, arguing that Paris authorities are as motivated by the damage rats cause to the image of the world’s most visited city as they are about hygiene issues.