devorisedixon89/InstagramUPDATE: The alleged "fried rat" meat was put to the test and the results are in. KFC has issued the following statement to E! News:
"Recently, a customer questioned the quality of a KFC product, and this received considerable publicity given the sensational nature of his claim. The product has now been tested by a third-party independent lab, which confirmed it is definitely a piece of chicken, as we knew all along. The right thing for this customer to do is to apologize and cease making false claims about the KFC brand."
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Before you rat KFC out, you gotta hear both sides of the story.
People have been going cray-cray today after feasting their eyes on a viral video shared by a customer who claims he was served a fried rat at the popular fast-food chain. Sounds super gross, right? Devorise Dixon's clip doesn't contain any audio, but gives people a visual of a crispy piece of meat that also contains what looks like a deep-fried tail.
And although you might initially be completely convinced that this atrocity happened, the corporation wants you to know it absolutely didn't.
"A customer has made a serious claim against KFC and refuses to cooperate in the investigation," the corporation tells E! News in a statement.
"The images the customer originally posted do not include this second angle because it clearly shows it's a piece of hand-breaded white meat chicken. 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."
A hoax? Wouldn't be the first time.
Dixon posted a photo of the piece of meat on his Instagram recently with the caption, "I WENT TO KFC YESTERDAY AND BOUGHT A 3PIECE CHICKEN TENDER. AS I BIT INTO IT I NOTICED THAT I WAS VERY HARD AND RUBBERY WHICH MADE ME LOOK AT IT. I NOTICED IT HAD A VERY LONG TAIL AND WAS SHAPED LIKE AN RAT! IT SENT DEEP CHILLS THROUGHOUT MY WHOLE BODY IM STILL FEELING SICK CANT EVEN EAT!!! PLEASE WATCH WHAT YOU EAT COLD WORLD! I BOUGHT THIS FROM KFC IN COMPTON, CA ON WILMINGTON AND 120th."
He followed with another pic of the meat (which had a bite taken from it) and told followers he took it back to the KFC location he bought it at, and was allegedly told by the manager it was a rat. Yeah, a little hard to believe, but that's what he wrote.
KFC continued, "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."
Originally published June 17, 2015, at 6 p.m.