Rat-Gate 2015: KFC Denies They Deep-Fried A Rat — Customer Says Meal Left Him Nauseous, Woozy

In some parts of the world, it’s quite normal to eat a nice, juicy rat. Unfortunately for KFC, the United States isn’t one of those countries, and they have vehemently denied that the critter a California man found in his three-piece meal was anything but white meat chicken.

Although, if anything can make the disgusting creature taste delicious, it’s the restaurant’s secret recipe and a nice dip in an oil bath.

This scandal first began on June 10 when a man named Devorise Dixon, 25, posted a photo of the alleged fried rat on social media, along with plenty of dramatic descriptions of his experience at a Compton, Calif. KFC, Mashable reported.

“As I bit into I noticed that it was very hard and rubbery which made me look at it,” he wrote on Facebook. “As I looked down at it I noticed that it was … in a shape of a rat with a tail. It sent deep chills throughout my whole body! I’ve been feeling weird ever since … I’ve never seen chicken like this before, it’s sick!!”

While the chain has denied on every social media channel it operates that they don’t serve deep-fried vermin, he appeared on a radio show to recount his experience, a report by Jeanne Moos on CNN recounted.

After he recovered from a bout of nausea and wooziness, he secured it in a plastic bag and returned to the restaurant a couple days later. Someone there confirmed his suspicions. He was offered a free meal — perhaps tenders in the shape of other rodents — but he declined.

However, as Moos pointed out, shape alone isn’t enough to prove that “what is lurking under the breading” is actually vermin. And Devorise, after posting his claims online, has disappeared. He won’t talk to the media, or to KFC. Even though they’ve denied it, they have still offered to test the mystery meat in a lab, the company said in a statement.

“After the post from this consumer surfaced, KFC made various attempts to contact him, but he refused to talk to us directly or through an attorney. We extended the opportunity to have an independent lab evaluate the product at our own expense, but the customer refused to provide the product in question.”

KFC has been “aggressively trying” to reach Dixon after responding to his post with a reassurance that his claim would be taken “very seriously” and investigated, USA Today reported. But since then, the company has come up with no evidence to support his claim that he almost ate fried rodent.

To support this argument, the company has pointed to a different photo the young man posted — this one on Instagram — which they said bears a resemblance to white meat.

KFC denies claims that it sold a customer a fried rat in a recent meal. http://t.co/1DaxURFeKw pic.twitter.com/fHCWQkmbzj

— WCNC Charlotte (@wcnc) June 17, 2015

Reps aren’t the only ones who have denied the fried rat theory — people who’ve seen the photos online aren’t really convinced, according to the Daily Mirror. Theories include the “tail” being a piece of skin, and the rat figure a mere coincidence.

[Photo Courtesy Facebook]