A man in California posted a photo of the “rat” on his Facebook page, causing a sensation online.
Devorise Dixon has become a viral hit after posting the photos on his page on Thursday. He allegedly found the rat in a KFC meal that he bought from a restaurant in Los Angeles.
KFC on the wrong end of a trending topic
The rat is the number one trending topic on Facebook, and over 4,000 people have “friended” Dixon in a show of support. Facebook users have shared the photo over 100,000 times, with many people from around the world leaving comments vowing never to eat KFC again.
Dixon has become an internet sensation, and KFC is working to contain a possible public relations disaster, but the issue is that the offending item is likely not a rat at all.
25-year-old Dixon claims to have ordered a 3-piece chicken tender meal at the KFC in Compton, California, on Thursday, and says that he knew something was wrong when he bit into his deep-fried treat.
“It was very hard and rubbery, which made me look at it,” he wrote as a caption to the original photo. “As I looked down at it I noticed that it was was in a shape of a rat with a tail.”
Dixon has deleted his original caption, but it was archived by Snopes, a website which fact-checks viral news. Dixon wrote that the discovery “sent deep chills throughout my whole body” and called the chicken “sick.”
Fast-food chain attempts to contact Dixon
Over 4,200 people have friended Dixon since he made the post, with many writing messages of support. He later wrote that he had returned to KFC, where the store manager apologized after admitting that he had received a rat.
KFC wrote to Dixon on Tuesday, claiming that it had made various attempts to make contact with him and that no evidence had been discovered to support his claims. The fast-food chain later confirmed to Business Insider that it had requested that Dixon send the chicken to a laboratory for evaluation.
KFC says that Dixon has refused to talk to their representatives either directly or via an attorney, as well as refusing to send the “rat” for evaluation.
Signs point to a hoax
As if the allegations made by KFC were not enough to throw the veracity of Dixon’s claims into doubt, a close analysis of the pictures reveals that white meat can be seen through the crack in the breading. Dixon claims to have taken a bite of the skull of the rat, but the photo does not provide any evidence of the bones which he would inevitably have bitten into if his claims were true.
KFC later sent another picture of the other side of the “rat” in which white meat can be seen.
Given the circumstances it would appear that the “rat” was in fact a strangely shaped piece of chicken which inspired Dixon to make a cry for attention online. If it were really a rat, you have to wonder why he won’t respond to KFC or send it off for analysis.
Perhaps he is worried about losing his legions of new friends if the whole affair turns out to be a hoax. Either way it has been a fun ride for Dixon and gullible social media users all over the world.
Source: BusinessInsider
