AP: Rats run wild in KFC-Taco Bell in N.Y.

[catgirl]

Sorry, couldn't resist. KFC doesn't mind purchasing abused chickens.

NEW YORK - News video showing about a dozen rats running around a KFC-Taco Bell restaurant in Greenwich Village was widely disseminated Friday on TV stations and the Internet.

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The footage, taken from the sidewalk through a window, showed the rats running around the floor, between counters and tables and on children's high chairs. The establishment was not open at the time.

News crews flocked to the scene, and onlookers gave a play-by-play as the rodents moved about. When one rat came close to the window, a person on the sidewalk said: "He's coming for his close-up."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_us/restaurant_rats;_ylt=AoxIFCWj4mWwITYSjJRO4m6s0NUE

[saltpoint]

1. Same problem in the Bush White House.

[acmavm]

4. Rats! (please excuse the pun, couldn't pass it up). That's what

I was going to say.

We'll go broke having the White House exterminated after we get those vermin out of there.

[saltpoint]

6. LOL! We'll need Mr. Clean and the Orange Cleaner guy and just

about everybody else we can find.

Cause a certain fake cowboy and his rich, corrupt pals sure have made a big mess.

Hi to you, acmavm. Nice to see you this morning on DU.

[zbdent]

15. Clinton "left a stain" on the office which could be fixed by a dollar-store

carpet cleaner ...

The stain on this Presidency may need the total demolition of the White House itself ...

[saltpoint]

17. Good point. And accurate, too. The far Right tried to drive a stake

thru Clinton's heart but will look the other way as the Bush administration dismantles our liberties.

[KamaAina]

36. No, it'll just have to be gutted and remediated,

just like all those houses in New Orleans that he's been so helpful in fixing up, um, NOT. :grr:

[acmavm]

20. You too! How's it going?

[saltpoint]

35. Still hangin' in there. I'm ready for that first vote in the Iowa caucuses.

I'm thinking this next Tuesday would be good...

It's time to feel like we're starting the process of getting rid of this horrific administration once and for all.

[Ian David]

2. So this must be who feeds the troops at Walter Reed, then? n/t

[Deep13]

3. Still, the rats are not as disgusting as the KFC menu.

:eyes:

[bleedingheart]

7. the last time I ate at KFC it left me feeling ill for a while

we were taking a trip and it was the most convenient place to eat...but the food was so greasy..that it just sat in my stomach...

[bigworld]

10. Lucky you

it sat in your stomach? .. usually it exits via the back end pretty quickly.

[bigworld]

9. eww

That's a filthy restaurant. There's graffiti on the ATM inside, and huge crumbs all over the floor that most definitely should have been cleaned up the night before. Without judging the parent company, that's a piss poor manager.

Used to work in the biz,

Jim

[donco6]

5. Ugh.

At the fast food places around here, it's difficult to find an actual adult. The whole place is run by children. And we all know how much teenagers care about keeping things neat and tidy.

[LostinVA]

8. Okay, another icky story

Mid-January, 2007
Staten Island Ferry Terminal (NYC side)
Lostinva, Haruka3_2000, and ThomCat



We're waiting for the ferry in the very nice, brand new ferry terminal. I get a drink from a water fountain and sit back own. One of the many pigeons loitering around jumps up into the water fountain RIGHT NEXT to the one I had just drank from and starts "drinking" and playing in the fountain. So, what are the odds that one of the nasty buggers had ben in MY water fountain sometime in the near past??? Thom and Haruka thought it was tres amusing.

[Auggie]

11. This is a great argument why it should be mandatory for every restaurant in

the USA to be inspected regularly by their local health department and have their ratings posted in a conspicuous place.

[kestrel91316]

23. That's one of the few things Lost Angeles gets right! Every restaurant has

a letter grade posted on the front window. If you have anything other than an A for more than a week or so, word gets around and you can kiss your investment goodbye. Nobody eats at a B, let alone a C.

[Sequoia]

26. I remember how it all started with that news channel who

did a story on restuarants. It was huge news and everyone scrambled to be clean. I think it should be the law of the land. I won't go in a C. Well, can't even go in an A since (snob, sniff) I don't live there anymore.

Speaking of LA, I hate it when other says people are "fakes" in Los Angeles. I lived there for years and that's not true for the most part. Who's fake are those preachers who condemn others for the very sins they commit themselves.

I love El Lay! Olay!!

[Auggie]

27. San Francisco has tried to enact a similar health rating system

but as I understand it, the Restaurant Association has successfully lobbied against it.

[mitchleary]

12. They

must have heard about the new fish sandwich.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-02-22-kfc-fish_x.htm

[catgirl]

14. Maybe they can get the rats blessed too.

[Dr.Phool]

16. Maybe that was Pope Ratso giving his blessing.

[Auggie]

13. LOL! KFC-Taco Bell is owned by a company called "Yum!"

:rofl:

And here's their Web site: http://www.yum.com/about/default.asp

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. Would you like fries with those?

.

[Auggie]

19. Or, would you like FLIES with those?

[Demit]

22. LOL!

[Deja Q]

30. Odd. Those curly fries seem to taste rubbery rather than potatoey...

:puke:

[juajen]

21. Common problem in NYC

My daughter was a waitress while attending school there; she wouldn't go down stairs to basement for supplies without an escort armed with some type of weapon. She told me that the problem was common all over NYC and appeared to be unsolvable.

[keepCAblue]

25. Not just NYC...there's a rat-infested Petsmart in Campbell, CA

There's a Petsmart in Campbell, CA (burb of San Jose) that is overrun by rats. They called in a pest control company who set traps around, including on the overhead pipes that run along the ceiling. One rat was caught in one of the traps by it's leg and there it was, dangling by one leg, hanging from the ceiling about 20 feet up, wriggling and fighting in vain to free itself. Complaints to the Petsmart manager were useless; the rat would have to wait up there, trapped, for the couple days until the pest control company was due back. So the rat died a slow, cruel death during those couple days, whilst horrified shoppers below had to watch.

The rats leave droppings and horribly smelling urine markings all over the bags of cat and dog food and tear into the bags to eat the food. This has been going on for many months and the store has done little to improve this; in fact, the infestation has been worse every time I've been to this store (I did vendor sales at this store until the problem got so bad I refused to work there anymore). Complaints to the health department are ignored apparently, as the local authorities haven't forced this store into compliance or shut it down. And, unbelievable, this Petsmart remains one of the busiest Petsmarts in the San Fran South Bay. How many dogs and cats, I wonder, have gotten sick from food the rats have gotten into and urinated and defecated on. It's utterly amazing that this condition is allowed to continue.

[Sequoia]

24. Coming for his close-up! God, how funny!

I can't to hear what Dave Letterman says about this!

[KamaAina]

37. Maybe it was John "Rat"zenberger

you know, Cliffie from Cheers? :-)

[Initech]

28. Man, it's Taco Bell and KFC... is anyone really surprised?

[Phillycat]

32. Same company.

[Deja Q]

29. Oh no! Secret ingredients exposed!

:puke:

[RumpusCat]

31. I have eaten at that establishment!

No more recently than a year ago, but still, good thing my immune system is strong! I know right where it is... 6th Ave and 3rd St, near Washington Square Park. There aren't many Taco Bells in NYC and when I lived there this was the closest one to my apartment. I have a weakness for Taco Hell. :D

[Elidor]

33. YUM Brands, indeed!

[tinfoilinfor2005]

34. I recently ate at a KFC and went to the bathroom to wash my hands

before eating. There were two soap containers but both were empty and appeared not to have been serviced in decades. One of the employees came out of the stall while I was wiping my hands and rinsed her hands with water. Whether she would have even gone to that extreme had I not been standing there, I'm not sure, but I pointed out to her that there was no soap. She said she would go and get some, and a few minutes later came back to tell me that there was none available.

I fully intended to call the KFC office when I got home, but one thing led to another and I didn't. However, I noticed last week that the place was closed down. One of the reasons that I didn't approach management that day was because, as another poster stated, all of the employees are kids, even the managers. Most of them don't look like they have washed their uniforms in days, let alone scrubbed the floors of the restaurant after their shift.

[Auggie]

38. Many franchises are being run by private investment firms that

own and operate hundreds of restaurants. Example: Strategic Restaurant Acquisition Group, in San Ramon, CA., that owns more than 250 Burger King Restaurants in six states: http://www.cerberuscapital.com/profiles/strategic_res_acq.html. They, in turn, are an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management that invests in everything from Aerospace to Real Estate.

It's easy to see how things -- especially rats -- can slip through the cracks in operations that huge.

Don't know if that's the case with this particular KFC, but it's food for thought (no pun intended) next time you step into any franchised restaurant.

[catgirl]

40. This is bizarre

Two KFC's were just shut down in two towns outside of Boston, MA.
It'll be on the news stations tonight. Apparently the owners were operating
without permits for a couple of years. They were ordered to remove and
destroy anything that had KFC on them.

[Yavin4]

39. I Have Eaten At That KFC!!!!

Although not this year since I went on a diet.