Woman says she found whole rat’s head in Popeyes fried chicken meal

A New York woman has posted photos of what appears to be a rat’s head cooked in with her fried chicken from Popeyes on Facebook.

U.K. paper Metro reports that Rosemary Thomas went to a Popeyes in Harlem with her daughter, niece and sister when she found the rodent’s head in her meal.

“This is clearly a rat and they have the nerve to have a 5 rating by the department of health,” Thomas wrote on Facebook. “Think about all the other rat [SIC] that have been served and the lasting effect this will have on my daughter, niece and sister.”

According to further comments made by Thomas, her daughter was traumatized by the incident and had to be taken to urgent care after coming down with a case of diarrhea and vomiting all day.

“I know this will have an effect on her for a long time,” she added. “Yesterday she ate nothing all day. All she kept seeing was the rat. The worse thing she ate the crispy part which might have been a blessing in disguise cause she would not have seen the head.”

Popeyes spokesperson Renee Kopowski told DNAinfo that the chain’s corporate office contacted the franchise owner about Thomas’ claims and the franchise owner was upset about the alleged rat head.

She also added the chain reached out to the department of health, which on Monday didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

Kopowski, however, also mentioned that foreign items aren’t typically found in Popeyes chicken, but when things are found, they’re usually chicken organs. Thomas, however, was expected to bring what she found to the restaurant on Monday to get it tested, according to DNAinfo.

This isn’t the first time this year someone has allegedly found a rat inside Popeyes chicken. A Louisiana woman posted a photo to Facebook of what she said was a fried rat in her chicken breast. The company at the time said it could’ve been organ meat.