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Reader Wayne sent us this photograph and explains, "I was walking along and texting. Not really paying that much attention. Then something caught my eye. I thought I was about to step in dog shit, but quickly realized it was a rat stuck in the sidewalk. A big rat. It had tried to squeeze through a crack in the sidewalk and failed."
Update: Another reader created the second photograph in the gallery, adding, "hopefully this makes it a little better!"
We are still awaiting a reply from Wayne to ask if he tried to help the little guy (or gal) out, where it was located and whether we needed to send out a rescue squad. And if you want to pass the time with some Photoshopped sad rat images... well, you can send them to tips@gothamist.com and we'll compile them into a gallery later.
Update 7:50 p.m.: We've added some of the rat-in-sidewalk Photoshops—if you're not doing anything this Friday night, send 'em our way!
Update 10/24: More Photoshopped Sad Rat photographs here, plus a poll asking what you would do if you saw a rat emerging from a sidewalk. And Wayne got back to our questions. He says, "It was on my block on the Upper West Side. 82nd Street between CPW and Columbus. I thought it was alive, but after getting up the nerve to poke it with a (long) stick, I realized he was dead. I did what any wonderful caring masculine New Yorker would do, I told the doorman about it and ran off to work. That night the sidewalk with spic and span. I hear the Eulogy was beautiful and moved some to tears."
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Did he help the rat? geez
I'm finding out! But the real questions, felix, is would you? Or do I know the answer already?
Yes, if you give me the locations then I gladly head out there.
Yes give me the location and I will go.
Hope you have your chain mail gloves with you.
you're a weirdo felix, but god bless you for your compassion for animals.
you're going to need some kind of lubricant to get that rodent out of the crack. i'm sure some gothamist readers can back me up on that.
Richard Gere probably has a billion ways to do just that...
A jar of vaseline
Any location? I will check my pda in case you need someone to head out there and help the little guy.
Is Vaseline flammable? Post the location and I'll be there with a Zippo.
ok, so you won't be there to help the rat but you be there to burn a human being. Fitting to say the least.
vaseline's a bad idea. you want something that'll seep down or that you can apply at a distance, like 3-in-one oil or wd-40.
that rat's a goner anyway. take a good look, it's the american dream folks.
I thought of baby oil but now it is too late.
HOAX!
yikes! not sure how one handles that. use a stick to pry him loose? a long stick???
poor little guy!!
Lawnmower.
damn... I actually feel for the little guy. Where is he... I'd like to bring him some bread and water...
Don't feed him! He just needs to lose a little weight, and he'll pop right out.
FailRat
Poor dude!
You "help" it by putting a paper bag over it's head and stomping as hard as you can.
Would you like someone to stomp you when you are in need of aid? Really sick remark.
I'm not a disease carrying pest that causes allergies and asthma in children, and damage to infrastructure in the form of chewed wired and pipes which leads to fires and flooding.
Stomping on his head would be a relatively painless and humane way for "him" to go.
I don't blame the rats for our rat problem, they are just doing their thing. I blame our city's sanitation department for running an archaic trash disposal and collection system. The only difference between our sanitation system and that of the ancient Romans is the internal combustion engine in the carts that come around to collect the trash.
A system that in based on throwing garbage out on the street in plastic bags is criminally negligent. We could eliminate much of the rat problem by having a modern disposal system that required all building to use rat proof bins, instead of piling trash out on the sidewalk overnight in wait of the garbage truck to come around.
YOU can have all the rat proof bins in the world and it does not stop the filthy humans from tossing all the wrappers and containers of ALL that they CONSUMED unto the streets and train tracks.
Drop in the bucket compared to the tons of trash left on the street. I'm sure you've walked by a trash bag at night squirming with rats feasting inside.
I don't know where you live but in Chelsea and the lower east side, the streets are filled with garbage tossed by people and the trains are worst. Humans eat too much. I see the nearby McDonalds toss out 40 bags of garbage every night
Exactly what I'm talking about, thank you for proving my point you moron.
Moron? Yes resort to name calling when your non point fails.
I think this is acceptable morally as long as you eat him tomorrow for breakfast. Maybe with some eggs - corned rat hash?
The compassionate thing to do would be to end its suffering by stomping on it. That rat clearly has been suffering a long, long time. That said, I wouldn't out of fear that felixthecat would be approaching with a water bottle and loaf of bread and would post my picture all over the internets if he saw me do it.
One time I saw a baby bird on the sidewalk that had fallen out of its nest. Out of fear of someone seeing me stomp on a baby bird, I walked past it. I've felt guilty about letting that thing suffer like that ever since.
Sometimes killing is the most caring and compassionate course of action, although moral simpletons like felixthecat surely think otherwise.
dear SP:
I hate to break it to you, but IF you are human, then you are indeed a disease carrying pest.
where is he?? i want to go help him. how sad.
Do you think the rat would mind being buttered up? Maybe he'll pop out.
he's huge! look at them gunz.
I suppose someone could get a pry bar and lift the flagstone up a bit.
It is a rat... Not a poor dude or any kind of cute little thing. He is a pest and health threat. Maybe stomping him is not the best ending but it sure does beat bleeding out from ingesting the rodenticide that is used all over the city.
Fail rat is right. now give him his darwin award and put him out of his misery.
great photo. reminds me of this sad tail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2OEkdZg610
link's broken
it is? try it again, mebbe let it load. works here.
I assume valeriob was referring to the link in your first comment and he did not download your second comment, with the "naked" URL, before posting his comment.
Ate too much Juniors Cheesecake.
if it was a vegan rat it would not be in this position
Did they say on CSI (I say that without any irony) that rats have a skeleton that is so flexible that they can basically squeeze through any space that their head can fit into? Does anyone know if that is true?
No. These are myths.
Rats have a skeleton made of bones connected with joints and cartilage, just like we do.
You know what I can't get enough of... how you don't have one original post with your own ideas or own words. You scalp all day and plagiarize other people's work and comments.
you got that from here after googling it because you didn't know the answer, but you will sure act like you knew...
I gave her the answer from a valuable source. Big deal. What is your point? Do you disagree with the answer or do you want to gain your last moments of pleasure trolling here before your LONELY weekend starts?
Your reputable source IS reputable. In fact her name is Anne Hanson. Her website SPECIFICALLY asks to cite her website when referencing her work here.
Are you monitoring my every move? Get a life, no joke, get a life.
Rats can fit through some surprisingly small holes, but it isn't because their bones are soft or come apart. Rats can fit through small holes because their bodies are long, flexible and cylindrical in shape. They are burrowing animals that spend their lives running down tunnels and through tight spaces.
Rats determine whether they can fit through a hole using their whiskers. A fleeing rat makes this judgment very quickly, by just poking its nose into a hole and dashing through if it is large enough, and darting on to another one if necessary.
Note that an overweight rat has different proportions from a healthy one: overweight rats tend to put on fat around their abdomens, leading to a large girth and an inability to fit through holes as small as those a healthy rat could fit through.
You clearly plagiarized this too, as evidenced by the lack of spelling mistakes and weird grammatical constructions.
What is evident is how your mother failed in raising a decent human being.
perhaps he didn't receive a HUMAN EDUCATION
That's from here. You should site your references.
great work at schooling the fool.
Why should I CITE my references when I have you?
hahahahahahhaha. That's too good. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get so completely busted. What a tool you is.
Actually its what a tool you are. LMFAO. And I only answered her question correctly. Do you disagree with the answer?? What it does show me is how pathetic Valeriob is to stalked my every move. He actually took the time to google my comment. How sad he really is.
Your bi-polar, poorly written replies are much sadder...
Someone should lay a series of glue traps around it and then set it free instead of some of the above suggestions.
If it were a pigeon, I'd line it up for a punt through the uprights. Being that it's a rat (sans wings), I'd bring an alley cat over to 'help' out. Is that wrong for me to do, Felix? Should nature not take its course? Is it wrong for animals to survive by killing and eating other animals?
I'd line it up for a punt through the uprights." There was another reader who wished you a long painful death. I wish your own words bite you back one day.
As usual, you never address the comment or the issue because you cannot formulate a clear thought with all of that animal crap in your head.
I would use a 5 iron.
No.... its deep in the hazard. You'll want to use a sand wedge or a pitching wedge to get it out in the open.
Rat sandwedge?
"Mmmm, open faced club sand wedge."
jmh, that line makes me laugh every time
You are right sir. Also the sand wedge has a good angle to slice the head off and still get some air under it.
Awesome.
And I was going to pull out my wood.
The taxpayers should use a 5 iron for the theft of our money with your workers comp fraud. And why a 5 iron? Didn't you say you were on leave for your finger yet you can type here and swing a 5 iron. NO wonder the MTA is broken when they hire lazy crooked thieves as you.
You can still play golf with a hurt finger moron. I play 3 times a week.
You don't play golf, you probably steal them as you steal from taxpayers. You give all the other MTA workers a bad name since they are viewed as LAZY and CROOKED living on the taxpayers' back.
You play golf 3 times a week with a hurt finger, or you play with your finger 3 times a week? Which begs the question, what games are you playing with your finger? And is that finger game how you ended up playing golf with a hurt finger?
Get one of those chop magic thingies from the sham wow guy, remove the bottom, and slam away; or just practice whack a mole.
That's a good one. Rat salsa right one the sidewalk.
I'll be right over with some Junior's cheesecake for the little guy.
Ides of Speed. Slow response today, eh?
pfff...nature. so feeble.
Damn you Gothamist, I can't believe you made me feel bad for a freaking RAT.
I really, really dislike rats, but I can identify with any creature having a panic attack.
Clearly an expensive government program is needed to combat this epidemic of rodent obesity. The city can start by requiring calorie amounts to be printed on all dumpsters and garbage cans.
You are correct for once, despite your sarcasm. We need to modernize our sanitation system.
He's sleeping.
http://twitpic.com/mn2ir
hopefully this makes it a little better!
hahaha!
That is hysterically perfect.
Haha i cant get enough. FTW post of the week!
It does, it does.
while there may be some debated as to whether this is the Saddest Thing Ever, there can be no debate that this is the greatest Gothamist Posting Ever.
How many times can I press the Like It button? Will it keep counting them?
Rats and pigeons are pests and health threats, and they spread disease. Humanely putting him out of his misery is right thing to do.
Most of the disease inflicted on humans are caused by themselves or other humans. (STDS ....) Perhaps we should humanely put them out as well.
That's incorrect, most pathogens are environmental, and vermin are a big carrier. Have you ever traveled to a 3rd world place which has no public health infrastructure?
Rats, pigeons, mosquito, dogs and cats aren't so cute there. They cost millions of lives through direct infection and contamination of water and food supplies.
Do you live in a 3rd world country?? I was speaking about NY and how the majority of our disease are from our own doing and from other humans. In fact, a good diet and good grooming is something that many in NY lack.
Alright, we get it. Save the animals, hug a tree. thanks.
Maybe you shouldn't live in/read a blog about one of the most populous, crowded cities in the world.
I hear they're always looking for good lumberjacks in Alaska.
Why must I live in Alaska? why can NYC be a humane city? Humanity isn't a location. Of course you make reference to tree huggers but it is people that are so self-absorbed and consuming that make society worse for other species as well as our own.
Ahhh morbid obesity. Not just for humans anymore.
It's an American rat. Gluttony is our motto.
Now he just needs a cigar and a little green tinted visor...which is how all rats play solitaire.
Ahhh Jen you are awesome!!
Dead Himmler loves Jen Chung.
Who doesn't love Jen Chung?
"hopefully this makes it a little better!",- it actually does make you feel better.
I'm posting strictly to help make this the fastest post to reach 100 comments in the history of Gothamist.
Don't be afraid that you can't do it
There is really nothing to it
Shake with your hands wiggling from your ears
Make like a mouse push your feet down and cheer...
so long Soupy
www.forgotten-ny.com
Poor thing!
Here's an eery thought--where was it that this rat came from? Picture yourself in the inky darkness of some fetid passageway under the sidewalks of NYC. You see a shaft of daylight beckoning you to freedom. You get stuck in the crack because your butt is too fat. There's no way you're going back down because something dangerous lurks below . . .
The bottom line is that it must be pretty hideous down there if a rat is trying to escape to the animal-friendly sidewalks of NY.
i think by now some kid has stomped on this fat mofo
btw can someone photoshop marimbas now?
Well I for one enjoy watching them rummaging around down on the tracks when I'm bored waiting for my train
100!
I am proud, embarrassed and disgusted to report that I also witnessed this strange spectacle. It took place a couple weeks ago on 82nd btw Columbus/CPW.
The little guy was well dead so in response to the comments above, it was too late for an intervention, never mind a diet.
Did I help? Well, I'm proud to say I kept my dog from eating him.
Why did that reader just take a picture and not help the poor rat or call ASPCA to help him. That is so fucked up. Poor rat
Felix IT IS A RAT! The ASPCA has its hands full with abandoned and abused animals as it is. They would not have stopped everything to go and rescue a rat. The photo taker would have had more luck getting a couple of cops from the local precinct use it for target practice.
The fact that you like to get people riled up by defending this rat, or offering your services to rescue (laughable) it is kind of sad. You say poor rat Felix... I say poor you.
I would have help him myself but if the guy who took the photo didn't want to help than at least call someone. Really, to leave the rat like that is Fucked up.
I say poor anyone who has the misfortune to know such a heartless prick. What is the big deal to help this rat instead of leaving him in such a tortured state. If you can't comprehend that that it is you that is in a poor state.
I think the picture taking reader was Christine Quinn.
Your Gothamist username should be felixthecrap.
It is you that is crap, it is only a few minutes to help a poor rat.. shame on you. When you are in need of aid, you will know how it feels to be ignored as they take photos of you.
I am sure it's also Bloomberg's fault for not fixing the sidewalk crack and causing your vermin buddy to be stuck there. Sorry but rats and other animals are killed and ran over everyday, good luck trying to save each and everyone of them.
I'm sure minutes after this photo was taken someone's Friday night got off to a gross, rat-bloody start.
We know the ASPCA would not come and help but there are many that say why did the poster not help - what could he do to help? You can't grab it - it is afraid and would most likely tear anyone near him up. Poke it with a stick?
Helping also includes hitting it with a hammer and ending its misery. It is always humane to extinguish the vermin of this world.
Wonder if this is a new type of trap created by the evil genius of the DOT. I think have that to stop smoking the good stuff.
what's the latest with this little guy? did somebody get him out or what?
I heard that the situation was "rectified".
If it was a squirrel, would people have helped it?
Absolutely not, are you out of your mind?
Another sign of how selfish and uncaring we've become as a society. A helpless creature is in distress and Wayne chooses to whip out his phone and take pictures.
Please go back to your square state.
yep, that is fucked up. Take a photo, can anyone be more useless than that. I am sure wayne is one of these person like ZANSR perhaps. assholes.
looooool nice pic and nice set
________________
http://www.ra23h.com
I would get the rat out with the same graphics editor -- Photoshop, most likely -- that was used to put it in.
118 posts for this, wow you people have no life. oh, wait.......
Once he got caught up in crack, that rat's life choices dwindled and he never got anywhere. In the end, he was merely a subject of ridicule until he died a cruel, tortuous death. Meanwhile, his pals are in your medicine cabinet checking out all the cool pharms.
I would think that unleashing a clutter of hungry alley cats would put it out of it's misery....
It's not a rat in the sidewalk.
It's a hoax in the sidewalk.
Photoshop triumphs again.
Last Friday it was balloon boy, this Friday it's crack rat. When will the madness end ?
This is not the time for compassion. The rat is a disease carrier. The proper response is a way to rid the city of them. Let us not get carried away, they're a menace.
please tell me someone helped this little creature out. i'm about to take a train from connecticut to do it if no one else will. address?
We need NYC DEP to give the 55 Water Street peregrine falcons a field trip to Brooklyn. Lunch will be provided.
You're right, and after that, let's send them falcons after the pigeons. We wont have to worry about the falcons anymore because they'll be so heavy that they will fall from the skies and kill themselves.
Haha the world is so bizarre
Christ! Show some consistency people. Rats are disgusting & if this was a different situation, it might be eating a baby alive. If the freaking city would get off its ass and do something, the rat would be dead long before it made it to the surface.
I noticed this on flickr the other day:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27265954@N00/2028797865/in/pool-1113966@N22
News flash for Felix the Cat
We Cats Eat Rats
I love you guys!
Sad! This is really upsetting. Poor little guy.
can we go for 200 comments. that'd make my weekend.
sad?....yes
Aww he looks to uncomfortable to make a Photoshop image! I don't like rats either but I hate to see any animal suffer.
how much fun would it be to bring a radio control cat over to play
Wow...Banksy taking his street art to a new level I see.
I realize I'm tardy to the party. And yes, rats are a health hazard. But I took a class in epidemiology and learned that rats are actually the first layer of protection AGAINST disease. They're the ones that succumb to various strains of the plague first; possibly halting its spread to humans. As for the little guy stuck in the sidewalk? Olive oil might have help pry him out. (It's what the fire dept uses when babies get stuck in those awful child-bathtub seats.) But the rat in the photo looks ill; matted fur.
If you've ever looked at a rat's feet, you'll note how similar they are to humans'. I guess that's another useless piece of trivia. Carry on.
Wait a minute. Wasn't it the rats that helped spread the great plagues throughout London and Europe back in the early days?
In any case, I would've let the rat go. Rats do live off our excesses. We are responsible for them.
Poor little guy. Hopefully he managed to get out of that hole safe.
No one photoshopped a slice of cheesecake or a junior's box yet?
or a wack-a-mole photoshop?
or a felix the cat?
or a taxi tire nearing by?
or the fantastic 4 cover?
i suck at photoshop.
I guess the idea is that no matter who or what it is, alleviating its suffering is always the right thing to do. So either put him out of his misery painlessly, or maybe try and open that crack a little and give it a chance. Live and let live.
Here's a "happy" well, who knows for sure, at least natural ending - but it elicited some literary interest, a year or so after it was photographed and that photo noticed - and he may have been lying dead there for a while too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycandre/2921344926/
"We all live in a yellow bubble "
in response to ever present automaton reactive bullies that think violence and dead is the answer to compassion:
how interesting most people fail to see a sick logic in favor of the bigger pest of this planet:
let's edit one of the comments:
"It is a 'HUMAN'...
Not a poor 'rat' or any kind of cute little thing.
He is a pest and 'an ecosystems' health threat.
Maybe stomping him is not the best ending but it sure does beat bleeding out from ingesting the 'processed food cancer' that is used all over the city.
Fail human is right. now give him his darwin award and put him out of his misery"
I don't care for rats, but this is seriously sick. Gothamist has gone off the rails.
Old Joke:
Why is the N.I.H. (National Institute of Health) substituting rats with lawyers for lab tests?
Three reasons:
1. There are more lawyers then rats.
2. When rats die many lab techs feel bad for them.
3. There are some things a rat will not do.
I actually think people's reactions here are very telling, and it's morally fascinating to ask ourselves why we feel compassion for a single example of a pest that, on an institutional level, we want to exterminate. Thanks for posting this, Gothamist. I blogged about it on Everyday Ethics today with a link to this page. http://bit.ly/138zd5
what a ratastrophe
Facebook_User_Hillary says: " .. it's morally fascinating to ask ourselves why we feel compassion for a single example of a pest that, on an institutional level, we want to exterminate .. "
Well, chalk it out to the usual laziness/ ignorance/ hypocrisy/ cynicism/ fatalism/ /(any clever justification)
of some. I'm all for stopping this nonsensical extermination effort - did you know, there are about 3 main rat armies fighting it out all the time in NYC. They will balance themselves quite well - especially if we stop feeding them all the time with our nasty habit of wasting and then throwing out food (which isnt even very healthy to start with).
Sometimes there is some kind of perverse karma at work for people who feed even pricey "standard junk" catfood to their pets. Not thinking for a moment about the "concentration camp style" animal (parts) that go into making these Purina et al "Gourmet cat foods".
Why perverse? because, as you may have noticed, abou 90% of cats die prematurely of kidney failure or any number of unnatural causes (cancer etc).
So, yes alas we do have to think even about which catfood we buy (at least we still have some choice there, unlike which politicians we can find that aren't for sale).
My favorite is "The thinking person's cat food" - appropriate, eh! My cat Kal is seen there endorsing the righteous choices one "could" make
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycandre/3269424506
NYC andre " we all live in a yellow bubble"
if it isn't photoshopped and is indeed real than it is quite sad. all critters deserve a chance to live, even if they aren't the most popular ones on the planet.
IT'S A HOAX.
IT'S A HOAX.
IT'S A HOAX.
Rats are not moles. They do not borrow up to the daylight from under the ground.
Note that this sidewalk is not made of concrete. Except for the old bluestone used in a couple of historic districts, all of NYC streets are made of concrete! It is unlikely that this is even a NYC sidewalk.
Look closely at the crevice. It has debris and garbage stuck in it. It is sealed tight. You can even see caulking that is used to seal the slabs. If the debris doesn't fall through, then how could a rat make it through? Besides, rats are too smart to go through a crevice that their whiskers tell them is too narrow for their bodies.
Jen wrote: "We are still awaiting a reply from Wayne to ask if he tried to help the little guy (or gal) out, where it was located and whether we needed to send out a rescue squad."
The fact that "Wayne" did not give the location and has not responded almost 24 hours later indicates further it is a photoshop hoax.
IT'S A HOAX.
IT'S A HOAX.
IT'S A HOAX.
Not a hoax. I took the picture. And others saw it. You're right though, it wouldn't normally do this. Someone had put bricks and mesh around a tree the day before. So this was the only way out. And the sidewalk is pushed up a bit from the tree's roots. It was on the Upper West side, and although some people may disagree, that's still part of New York.
rats climb in and out of holes in the non-concrete sidewalk in front of my apartment...well, all the time. i have actually seen the same rat in the subway station under the street pop out of the hole once i got up the stairs to the street level. (i mean, i presume it was the same, i didn't ask him) trash does not regularly fall down the hole i am speaking of but it may in this particular hole, unsure.
as far as the conspiracy theory goes, there is plausible evidence to suggest that this *could* occur. but i think we all remember the Montauk Monster a little to well to believe everything we see in blog photographs...
too
Let's hope that patch of sidewalk isn't where all the rain gathered last night. Otherwise, we'd have a drowning on our hands.
"thefacts" fails again. You can find bluestone sidewalks in Brooklyn fairly easily. I'm guessing "thefacts" never goes far from his LES apartment. "Sealed up tight"? Looks to me like the grout (who would use caulk on a sidewalk?) is old and broken and only the piece on the left remains. Also, sidewalks always sit on a subgrade of soil, which is often vulnerable to undermining or being washed out by rain. I pass by a fire hydrant every few days where you can see broken concrete around the base and a hole at least a foot deep beneath. Who says rats don't come out in daylight? I've walked past a construction site in lower Manhattan in early afternoon where a disgusting number of rats were just dashing all over the place and across the street in broad daylight. NYC rats are brazen.
Favorite Thread Ever.
Sooooo... where are the news updates on this? Did the rat make it? Did it meet with a foot stomping conservative?
After repeated attempts, it finally agreed to buy life insurance.
It was already dead when I found it. So I did what every manly New York male would do, I told the doorman about it and rushed off to work.
He looks alive in this picture. Was he really dead.
Looks like he was making his final wish. That's why it's so sad...
So Sad that he made me want to take him home with me.
You really don't have any friends, do you? :(
just punt its head across the street already
rohadékok
__[]__
[[ ]]
C'mon 200!
Two words: Nine Iron
It's good someone did something or else by the next morning, after other rats ate it, it would've been a more grotesque sight.
This photo isn't really the saddest thing ever.
That would be the caption describing the photo of the
rats family trying to pull him back down into the hole.
Lets go yanks!!
http://s606.photobucket.com/albums/tt147/prattkidd/?action=view¤t=yankees_rat.jpg
I wonder if Obama feels like this