Shocking NYC Subway Rat Video: Some Say It’s Staged, But New Yorkers Know Better

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Subway rat climbs on man's face.

Blizzards, terrorism, rats climbing on train passengers! We just don’t get why everyone doesn’t want to move here.

The viral video of a rat climbing on a man’s face as he sleeps on a New York City subway train is revolting, amusing, and frankly, not that shocking for those of us who live here. Online and on network news, however, there’s been chatter that the video was staged, that perhaps the rat looks too “clean” to be a true, mangy, underground-dwelling subway rat. While it’s unclear just how real the video is, considering the things we see on a daily basis in our lovely city, we wouldn’t be terribly surprised to find a rat passenger on our late-night F train this weekend.

If the video was staged, certainly the man who gets climbed on was not part of the fun considering his reaction (although a wave of his hand afterward, as if he’s saying “It’s cool, it’s cool,” was that of a man who’s seen this sort of thing before).

(Read TIME’s story about how rats spread plague in 14th century Europe.)

A cursory YouTube search for “rat” and “subway” brings up adorable videos of rats taking over a New York City KFC/Taco Bell, rats overrunning a public park, and rats just generally grossing everyone out. (see below)

The city has been battling rodents since it’s colonial days. According to a study last year, half of Lower Manhattan subway stations were home to rodents, and the city regularly tries to exterminate the vermin.

As a side note, NewsFeed would like to mention that we’ve seen multiple rats scurrying along multiple platforms in the early morning hours, and it doesn’t take much of a leap in judgment to believe that one could find its way onto a train. And in an unfortunate nighttime incident a few years back, NewsFeed may or may not have had a rat on its rooftop deck one night.

NewsFeed may or may not have immediately moved out.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgVATc3P7ac&w=450]