When office colleague Mike Aaron sauntered over to my desk this afternoon and said he had a photo of something “really, really gross” on his iPhone, I assumed it couldn’t be all that bad. After all, I’ve seen lots of nasty things during my 21-year tenure in New York City.
Then he showed it to me. And he wasn’t kidding. While walking along Attorney Street between Stanton and Houston Streets in the Lower East Side, Aaron stumbled upon a rat carcass which appeared to have its guts ripped out. Right next to the rodent, was a pile of what he first thought were “sausage links.” But it was only upon closer inspection that he began to realize the true horror of what he discovered. It was a litter of dead baby rats, some still encased in their birth sacs.
(It’s at this point that you may want to seriously consider scrolling down anymore.)
He surmised that the mama rat was hit by a car and due to the nature of the injury, the babies came spilling out. See the uncensored photo below in all its nightmarish glory.
