This Montana Town Banned Rats, Which Led to a Standoff

Montana has strange laws, but this one feels like something that started as a creepy bar story and somehow made its way into city code. In Billings, it is against the law to have a pet rat. Not discouraged, not regulated, just completely banned unless you’re feeding them to a reptile or using them for research. In the rest of Montana, no one really cares. Billings took one look at rats and said, “Yeah… NOPE.”

Beware the "Rat Man"

Back in the 90s, a guy named Robert Dorton was living at the Town House Motel in downtown Billings with what animal control believed were at least 20 pet rats. Not quietly either. These weren’t a couple of caged pets tucked in a corner. These were full-blown companions. He called them his “brothers,” which tells you everything you need to know about where this was headed.

The whole thing blew up when two of his rats got loose in the motel laundry room. Someone spotted them and called it in, saying they were the size of cats. Animal control showed up expecting monsters and instead found regular rats, which honestly still feels like enough of a problem. Dorton came down, scooped them up, and the rats jumped right onto his arm like they’d done it a hundred times. Completely normal behavior if you’re him. Slightly unsettling if you’re everyone else.

That’s when things went sideways. When animal control tried to talk to him, Dorton threatened the officer and barricaded himself in his room, turning a loose rat call into a full-blown police standoff. Officers eventually came back with a warrant to search the room, expecting to find a full colony living inside.

No Pet Rats policy

The rat ban in Billings actually dates back to a 1967 ordinance tied to public health concerns. Rats carry disease, they reproduce fast, and once they get out of control, it becomes a real problem. Stories like this don’t exactly help the case for keeping them as pets.

So while the rest of Montana is out here worrying about bears, wolves, and the occasional mountain lion, Billings drew the line at rats. One town, one very specific rule, and a story that feels just weird enough to be completely true.