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Viral video shows mouse eating meat at Manhattan Whole Foods

A woodmouse or long-tailed fieldmouse, (Apodemus sylvaticus), having breakfast. (Getty Images)

NEW YORK (WPIX) — A customer at a Manhattan Whole Foods discovered a mouse chowing down on food at the grocery store’s meat display.

A video posted on TikTok by Brittany Ellis showed the mouse nibbling on veal inside the display on May 23, but the video has since gone viral, with more than 2.4 million views.


Ellis later shared a YouTube video providing more details on the incident.

@definebritt

@wholefoodsofficials you doing bad guys not what I wanted to see today!!!!

♬ original sound – DefineBritt

WPIX reports Ellis said she heard a woman and man on line at the meat display talking about the rodent and went over to see for herself.

“That was disgusting,” Ellis said.

She then took a video of it and tried to get an employee’s attention. When Ellis got the butcher’s attention, he was shocked and brought the manager, who said he would take care of the situation.

It was not known if all the meat was removed, but Ellis told WPIX the mouse “definitely roamed around” the display as she lost sight of it while waiting for the manager.

“This was truly a traumatic viewing of a rodent eating away and possibly passing on more diseases during a global pandemic,” Ellis said.

She said Whole Foods has not reached out to her with an apology or statement after the video went viral.

WPIX reached out to Whole Foods for comment on the incident but has not heard back.