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Food

KFC Chicken Piece Kinda Looks Like A Rat

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A man claims that he was served a heaping dose of fried rat at a Willowbrook KFC. KFC is calling it a heaping dose of BS.

Devorise Dixon put up a Facebook post showing a hunk of fried chicken that to the untrained eye might appear to be a breaded and fried rat. That protrusion does look awfully tail-like. Dixon writes, "WENT BACK TO KFC YESTERDAY AND SPOKE TO THE MANAGER SHE SAID IT IS A RAT AND APOLOGIZED, IT'S TIME FOR A LAWYER!!! BESAFE DON'T EAT FAST FOOD !!!"

KFC says it's a hoax, and that a photograph from a second angle "clearly shows it's a piece of hand-breaded white meat chicken." They provided this photo that shows a piece with a bite taken out of it.

KFC said in a statement (via the Los Angeles Times): "Based on this, and the fact that he refuses to allow anyone to see the product, we are left to believe that he intended to deceive the public with this hoax and we are considering all options."

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Dixon writes on Facbeook, "Honestly it doesnt matter what other's think i know what i bit into and what it looks like never in life have a seen a chicken strip with a long Tail!"

The location of the alleged rat-frying is in Willowbrook at Wilmington Avenue and 119th Street. One Yelper who complained about the allegations received a response from KFC:

Food safety is our highest priority, and we take any allegations of this manner very seriously. Upon seeing this post, we conducted an immediate investigation and found no evidence to support this allegation. All of our chicken is received from USDA inspected facilities and evaluated following strict food safety and product quality standards. The restaurant operations team has also confirmed that there were no issues with any product or procedures. We are attempting to contact the guest and request that the guest contact us at 1-800-Call-KFC so that we can investigate further.

For what it's worth, Snopes says this is an urban legend that has popped up repeatedly since the 1970s—the site says it has more to do with our anxiety about fast food than anything. Its post addressing earlier hoaxes says that deep-fried rats are unlikely to pop up in the food chain because of KFC's preparation methods: "These days, however, many KFC outlets receive their chicken pieces pre-battered, and thus one of them could not "accidentally" batter and fry a rat."

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