Like many devoted owners, Anna Stone takes her pets on a leash wherever she goes. But Misty and Ebony aren't dogs - they're rats.

Anna says she is fed up of being abused by people in the street who accuse her animals of spreading disease.

She is campaigning to win rights for rats in the face of mounting concern about Britain's rodent population.

Earlier this month the Keep Britain Tidy group said rats could soon be roaming the streets like dogs because of people dumping food and rubbish.

There are an estimated 60 million rats in the UK and a chilling new cinema advert campaign shows rodents scurrying across a couple's bed.

Rats have been demonised in popular culture for years, most notably in Room 101 in George Orwell's novel 1984.

But Anna, 21, of Edinburgh Road, Brighton, believes too many people have misconceptions about them.

She said: "You couldn't find any animals more friendly and gentle than Misty and Ebony.

"They would never bite anyone, they just lick. They don't carry any diseases because they're well looked-after."

She straps her rats into home-made harnesses when she takes them out but not everyone is pleased to see them.

Anna said: "The other day a woman shouted at me, saying they were disgusting and dangerous.

"I don't have a go at people for having dogs, even though a dog is more likely to bite you than a rat."

Ebony, almost two, and nine-month-old Misty are also allowed to accompany Anna in the beer garden of The Hobgoblin pub in York Place, Brighton.

Anna gives talks at schools about rats and has drawn up leaflets with friends campaigning against animal-testing and discrimination against rats.

She hopes to enter Ebony and Misty into Crufts-style rodent shows in London next year, which include real-life rat races.

She said: "Lots of people don't understand rats develop real personalities."

Anna bought her first rat three years ago and named her Rizla after she developed a taste for chewing cigarette papers.