I have never heard of this problem before either. Really quite a mess. 
I am just sensitive I guess. Here is one of the rats I got with the snap trap. You can only use it once and have to buy a new trap. It is a losing battle if the barn was not going to do anything.My horse now lives in an outside paddock in a county park. There are so many hawks and snakes, rodents are not a problem out there. The box stalls have issues though.
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You can actually reuse those. Dump the rat and rebait.
The black T Rex traps will do a better job for you.
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I do a mix of the t-Rex and these electric traps. https://smile.amazon.com/Victor-M250SSR-2-Electronic-Mouse-Trap-2/dp/B07QCCQT7H/ref=sxts_rp_s1_0?cv_ct_cx=trap&dchild=1&keywords=trap&pd_rd_i=B07QCCQT7H&pd_rd_r=ed66ccc7-1f5e-4101-adae-dc41e62f39d2&pd_rd_w=ejlel&pd_rd_wg=WTNNs&pf_rd_p=6eac80ba-829a-4e87-bfad-12a47eca0d05&pf_rd_r=9XA6TRRNSSQ8K97MRXCR&psc=1&qid=1623116704&sr=1-1-cb9ed203-36f2-497c-b389-dfec57adb781
The electrics are easy to empty and re-bait.
I am going to be a repeat but… These traps can be re-used as many times as you would like. Just open it up, toss the dead rodent and reset it like you did the first time.
Thanks everyone for the heads up about the T-rex traps. I don’t think I have ever seen those before.
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This, except those cheapo wood base traps are scarier than s*** to reset. Three… two… one… FINGERS CLEAR LET GO.
I’d rather spend a little more money for the plastic ones that look like a big clip. Way less anxiety-inducing to reset. 
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The classic wood base Victor snap traps also come in a plastic base. I have found that they’re easier to reuse without the rats getting wise. Squirt them off and reset. Over time the wood base ones got harder and harder to catch another. Maybe the scent of rat death seeped into the base 
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Ditto! Of course, here in the Southeast, we also have a large population of natural rodent predators: Snakes! 
It makes me happy to see my resident rat snake(s) around the barn. As long as they steer clear of my chickens, they are very welcome here. Snakes are better at rodent control than cats, and you don’t have to pay vet bills for them. Lol.
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do not put night vision cameras in a barn unless you want to be sent messages that there is activity …that turns out to be rats
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Actually, Rats are pretty darn smart and they learn from example.
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They’re also more naturally timid than mice, making them much harder to deal with.
I had a friend who had a mouse chew through a metal cupboard and then through a metal tin to eat shoe polish.
UGH!
This is why I was amused when someone thought that mice would be stopped by placing things in one of those big plastic drawers SmartPak supplies.
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I guess I should say it’s the style that raises my heart rate to reset. You just KNOW that any jostling at all is going to cause it to trip and try and break your fingers…
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Rodents are smarter buggers than we give them credit for. In a past career I managed pest control programs for large food manufacturing facilities and got to learn a lot about rodent behavior. There is a researcher out of NYC who goes around the world teaching about his observations (I wish I remembered his name.) He spoke about trap/bait shyness, how rodents learned and how they moved around in spaces. Part of his research found that Norway rats absolutely will move up and climb into roofs, crawl spaces, and basically above humans if the pressure is there. The pressure doesn’t have to be from other rodents. If the ground level is too busy or the easiest way to get from point A to point b is a rafter, they will absolutely go up. He would regularly show videos of rodents avoiding traps or species of rodents in habitats that are not considered “typical”. They are creative little buggers.
He had/has a great respect for rodents. However He recognizes that they can be quite destructive and carry diseases that means we need to minimize their populations. Needless to say, he was a fun guy to talk to.
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We don’t use poison. Too many wild things around. Plus, our dogs absolutely obsess over the rats. The spaniel is most effective. She snatches them occasionally as they flee. The snap traps and live traps are great. Since we don’t use pesticides, and have a wooded area next to where we had an infestation (in the chicken coop), the best things we did were to remove food at night (chickens sleeping anyway), use secure feed bins, sweep up, and the woods next door had some snakes that came in for dinner. Mostly rat snakes and corn snakes, but a big moccasin was on the feed can one morning. I closed the feed door back up and waited for him to leave. Yikes! The snake left and we stopped seeing rats for a long time.
I also have never heard of rats injuring a horse’s feet, but rats can do some crazy things, so I don’t doubt it. Some of this seems regional, which makes me wonder if they learn it from each other.
I heard stories from Texans about black vultures and foals, calves, lambs, etc…. It seems in that state they don’t have to be dead to be a target. Frantic mama animals that walk away from very young babies. Crazy stuff. We have those same vulture here, but I’ve never heard of that behavior. In fact, they wait for roadkill to ripen and cook a bit, lol.
It’s very possible an animal learns it is a food source and teaches to others in an area. I hope our rats and vultures stay innocent here!
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I’ve seen vultures go after and kill smaller birds. I don’t doubt that they hunt live prey including mammals smaller than them. Not a bit.
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I’ve seen documentation of rats chewing the callous off the bottom of human’s feet while they were asleep! Generally people who walk barefoot a ton and don’t have ratproofable houses.
How does one sleep through that!?!
Speaking of rats, got this guy today. He didnt die from the trap itself (not even close to dead after 15 minutes) so I threw him in a bucket to drown. Cant live under my deck, nope nope nope. The multicatch trap is out and will be prebaited for a few days and we will see if there are any more.
