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| Family sues McDonald's after allegedly finding rat's head in burger | ||||||||||||||||||||
Dateline: 04/09/01
A Toronto family has filed a $17.5 million lawsuit against McDonald's of Canada, alleging that nine-year-old Ayan Abdi Jama took a bite of a McDonald's hamburger containing the crushed head of a rat, "complete with eyes, teeth, nose and whiskers."
The burger was cooked; the rat was not.
In court papers, Ayan's parents claimed she has suffered both physical injury and "extensive psychological damages."
The lawsuit also contends that the restaurant's assistant manager attempted to confiscate the hamburger, but the girl's mother kept it and submitted it to a laboratory for testing. According to the Toronto Star, lab results indicate that the rat's head had been placed in the sandwich after the beef patties were cooked.
Who put it there is a mystery.
McDonald's has declined to comment on the details of the case but issued a written statement saying: "The quality and safety of our food is paramount to every aspect of our McDonald's operation. McDonald's will defend itself to the fullest extent of the law."
Legend Fodder
Regardless of the merits of the case (the courts will have to decide on those), we can safely predict that this story will soon pass into folklore.
People are already saying (or typing), "Did you hear about the little girl in Canada who found a rat's head in a McDonald's burger?"
It's a short, inevitable step from there to: "My sister-in-law's boyfriend knows a guy who took his family to a McDonald's in Lompoc and one of the kids bit into a burger with a squished rat inside. Ew!!!"
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