This grim video shows the sickening moment a man appears to bite the head off a live rat.
According to the Mirror, the video was posted to Facebook by ‘Mad’ Matt Maloney and shows the, presumably unhinged, man walking through a corridor, getting hit with a fluorescent light bulb, picking the rat out of a cardboard box and apparently biting its head off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g9ysOZhr-g
He then downs three shots of vodka before being punched in the face and hit over the back with a chair. Unsurprisingly, viewers were outraged at the footage which has had more than three million hits.
I've just seen a video of a young Australian man bite the head off a live rat to impress his mates and the Internet. [1/3]
— Elena Wewer (@ElenaWewer) January 18, 2016
just watched a video of a dude bite the head off a rat then take a shot while getting punched in the face. what the fuck is the Internet.
— alexandra (@_ringofchain) January 20, 2016
I just some sick guy bite the head off a rat ? that's so fucked up and I want to cry
— ashton (@caImlove) January 22, 2016
It was reported to Facebook and his page is now unavailable, although it’s unclear whether it was actually banned, as Facebook’s initial response was that it didn’t ‘go against the Facebook community standards’.
This is quite graphic (sorry). This fine example of our species, Matt Mad Matts vids decided it’s funny to bite off rats…
Posted by The Everyday Vegan on Wednesday, January 20, 2016
According to the Brisbane Times, Mr Maloney, who is thought to have filmed the sick video in Queensland, has hit back at critics and said the rat was ‘always going to die’.
He wrote on his social media page:
I fed the body to my snake after the video and it wasn’t wasted. (I like to share). I killed that rat 10 times quicker than the snake could have.
I’m sure 90% of you have rat poison and rat traps in your homes right now. So stop acting like a bunch of sissies and accept the food chain. It’s mother nature and man’s gotta eat!
RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty has confirmed that the footage is now being investigated:
We hope to have some information in regards to the perpetrator sooner rather than later.
We will catch the person. [He] made no attempt to distance himself from what he did. We are definitely looking into it as being the real thing.
Can someone bite the mans head off who bit the head off that poor rat ?
— hello DODO (@hellohelloDODO) January 22, 2016
Pretty much.