When a Florida woman shopping at her local Super Walmart saw a large rat in the meat case, stampering across the shrink-wrapped packages, she knew that no one was going to believe her. She insisted on snapping a photo with her mobile phone. “[I] told my mom I wasn’t leaving without one,” she told a local news station. [More]
Video Evidence That Rats Like Starbucks Too
By April 26, 2011
Lest you think that rats are only fans of garbage, cheese and fine French cuisine, here is proof that they are addicted to the sweet, sugary beverages at Starbucks. [More]
To Your Brain, Bacon And Chocolate Are Sort Of Like Cocaine
By March 28, 2010
A recent scientific study on rats shows that our brains’ wiring is what causes humans to love overeating so darn much. Rats offered a selection of rich, tasty human foods not only became obese, but their brain chemistry changed. The rats needed more food to feel content…and discomfort wouldn’t keep them away from their tasty snacks. [More]
Rat Planter Pleads Guilty To Restaurant Extortion
By February 8, 2010
Finding frogs in your weight watchers food or snakes in your TGIF or mice in your Pepsi is one thing and alerting the authorities for infomational purposes is one thing, but please don’t plant rats in your soup in the hopes of extorting a half-million. Because you will be caught, like Debbie Miller of Wisconsin. Here brilliant scheme was defeated by a microwave. [More]
Loaf Of Bread Comes With Baked-In Rodent Goodness
By June 11, 2009
Back in 2007, a man in Northern Ireland opened up a loaf of bread and found a whole, mercifully dead, rat. (The BBC is reporting that it’s a mouse, but it’s either a giant mutant mouse or a rat.) A judge heard the case this week, and fined the bakery ÔøΩ1,000 ($1,653) “plus costs.”
Allen's Bribes Customers Who Find Dead Rat Heads In Their Italian Green Beans
By June 21, 2008
Texas wedding caterer Dale Cane found a dead rat’s head in one of the twenty cans of Allen’s Italian Green Beans he bought at Walmart. Allen’s quickly offered Cane $200 if he agreed to keep quiet, and assured him that “the Pasteurization process renders the product sterile and completely safe for consumption.” Even worse, this isn’t the first time a dead rat’s head popped up in a can of Allen’s Green Beans…
U.S. Marshals Raid Rat-Infested PETCO Distribution Center
By June 20, 2008
The FDA sent U.S. Marshals to seize “various animal food products” stored at a PETCO distribution center in Joliet, Illinois yesterday, because the storage conditions had been deemed unsanitary twice in a row:
Rat-Infested KFC/Taco Bell Is Now A T-Mobile
By December 26, 2007
Worried about consuming any type of food at the former location of the infamous rat-infested KFC/Taco Bell in New York City? We are too. That’s why we’re glad to hear that the new tenant is non other than our giant magenta friend, T-Mobile.
Which Do You Prefer? One Cat? Or A Thousand Rats?
By December 21, 2007
Luis Martinez, 42, has managed his brother’s grocery in East New York, Brooklyn, for two years. At first, despite weekly visits from an exterminator, the store’s inventory was ravaged constantly by nibbling vermin.
Pinkberry Yogurt Shop Is Vermin Infested
By June 18, 2007
Oh, great. Here we go again: ABC7 New York has video of several mice running happily around the inside of trendier-than-thou frozen yogurt spot Pinkberry, located on the Upper East Side. The footage is gross, gross enough that it would dissuade us from eating there, but the Pinkberry faithful just didn’t seem to care when ABC7 showed them the footage and asked for comment:
We alerted customers about the mice. But today’s discovery didn’t affect the line that did continue to snake out the door.
Pizza Hut Worker Fired For Reporting Mice To Health Department
By June 11, 2007
Health inspectors closed a Pizza Hut restaurant in east Raleigh after a worker found live mice inside it. The employee who notified the health department about the mice says she was fired for reporting the problem.
In an initial inspection, a heath department inspector found mouse droppings behind an ice machine, but gave the restaurant a passing grade because she didn’t find any live animals. A contractor put out glue traps, and when the worker in question arrived at the restaurant the next morning, she found 6 live mice stuck to the traps.
Rat Infested KFC/Taco Bell Closed Forever And Ever
By May 3, 2007
Yum! Brands just issued a press release apologizing once again for that rat infested KFC/Taco Bell in NYC. Further, they confirmed that the rat infested restaurant had served its last customer.
Since the incident, this KFC-Taco Bell restaurant has been closed for business, and it will not reopen.
Done! No more KFC/Taco Bell. It’s gone forever and ever. It’s been abandoned to the rats who claimed it as their own.
New York City Health Department Takes Blame For Rat Fiasco
By April 10, 2007
New York City’s Health Department has taken the blame for the KFC/Taco Bell rat infestation that made national news. (If, though some miracle you haven’t seen the footage yet, i.e. you’ve just come out of a coma or recently regained lost eye-sight, do give it a look. It’s worth it.) Anyhow, the inspector who gave a pass to the KFC/Taco Bell has resigned and the Health Department is, like, really sorry and stuff.
Warning: Rats In The Walmart!
By March 21, 2007
Rats! In the Walmart! New York City may have more than its share of rodents, but one pest we don’t have is Walmart…which is why for this rat infestation report we’ll be traveling all the way to sunny Phoenix! From KTAR:
A health inspector said he found mouse droppings at a Valley Wal-Mart on Monday after shoppers reported seeing rodents in a bakery case.
NYC Health Department Closes 'Hip' Union Square 'Coffee Shop'
By March 13, 2007
Yesterday, would-be Coffee Shop diners were shocked to see their neighborhood hotspot shuttered. “I wasn’t surprised about Taco Bell, but this?” a regular patron, Ursula Pilter, 34, said. “It’s such a hip place. I just can’t believe it.”
Oh, no! Not ‘hip’ restaurants! You mean rats don’t know they’re not cool enough to hang out at the Coffee Shop? —MEGHANN MARCO
NYC Health Commissioner: Rats Are Not A Health Risk
By March 9, 2007
The city spends $8 million a year on rodent control and has a team of more than 100 inspectors who close about 500 restaurants each year.
More Fast Food Rats In Tomorrow's New York Post?
By February 28, 2007
I was just at Au Bon Pain on 38th & 3rd, and when I stepped outside with my coffee, a NYPost reporter and photographer stopped me to talk about the recent spate of rat sightings in that particular ABP, and their poor grades on recent health inspections. He said a story will run in tomorrow’s Post (headline: French Rats Invade! (?)). We stood on the corner and chatted about the recent KFC thing, and he agreed that if he could get them on video, it could be another front-page ‘scandal’. I had previously seen a little mouse in the ABP on 39th & Madison, (which they said they’d check out) but these guys said large rats were spotted this time. He asked me if I was still going to drink the coffee, and I shrugged and said ‘I went to Manhattan College, so rats in the eating area isn’t a huge deal to me.’ He smiled and said look in tomorrow’s News section.
Well, we’ll say one thing for the New York Post, they’re certainly more proactive than the NYC Health Department. Have any of you people seen rats at the Au Bon Pain? —MEGHANN MARCO
Health Inspector That Passed The Rat Infested KFC Suspended
By February 28, 2007
The health inspector – whose name was not released – was “removed from restaurant inspection duty,” while the city’s health department reviews other inspections the staffer performed since being put on the job in June 2006, officials said.
