http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2915161
I'm sure most have heard about the rat problem in NY restaurants KFC and Taco Bell.
The video of this is so disgusting, but worth watching if you like that sort of stuff :)
The restaurant from the video had been inspected the day before the filming, and was given the ok by the health board to operate. THANK GOD for journalists!
"An ADF-owned KFC/Taco Bell was closed by New York health inspectors last week after TV news crews peering through the windows recorded about a dozen rats skittering across the floors and climbing on tables and countertops."
This is where I applaud journalists for going the extra mile and revealing public safety issues. I cannot believe that a restaurant owner would feel it ok to continue serving food (and preparing) when disgusting vermin have been all over the place, contaminating everything!
From the exposure, it has brought out the failing in public health inspectors, and the need to start seriously penalizing restaurants that do not follow health and safety guidelines. There have been numerous programs that show food workers smoking in the facility, dropping food on the floor and still serving it to customers, spitting, shooting boogers (so disgusting), in food, not washing hands after using the restroom, and so on. Usually these types of places have been warned and warned that the establishment will be shut down if changes don’t occur, but rarely does that happen. The reason?? The city is not going to shut down a source of income for government. Period. I think public health officials really need to crack down on repeat offenders. I get so grossed out by stories like this, and know that it happens all the time – even in up-scale restaurants. I think journalists, when they find something like this, should continue to go back to these places and record, as they’ve done, to make sure owners are following health codes.
4 comments:
I totally agree with you. I don't know how owners of resturants can let things get so bad and not do anything about it. People blowing boogers, spitting and not washing their hands is so gross and they need to be fired for it and I don't care what their excuse was for doing it either. But having rats in their restuarnt that is just plan wrong.
You can't go out anywhere now and feel 100% about the food your eatting is not messed up some how. It's really to bad. I do feel as though places who have been told they need to clean up their resturant need to do so and that 1 warning is enough. If they get caught a 2nd time they should be closed down no matter what.
I do like Taco Bell even though they have been caught several times with unhealthy things including there lettuce or was it their meat. I can't even remember but I do know I will not eat from the Taco Bell in White Center. I was in the drive through once and when I pulled up to the window there were rats running all around the building and I saw a ton and their is just no way that that many rats were outside and none where in the resturant. So I do not eat from that one at all.
I like the journalist angle of your post. There's so many reasons to be turned off by journalism today. This story shows how we truly depend on the watchdog aspect of a jounalists job. I'm not really interested in all the emotionally charged human interest stories and local news anchors trying to our friends. I want hard news, like this story, that will force action for the betterment of society. It not only exposed the disgusting conditions of probably countless fast-food restaurants, but the failings of the inspectors which probably reflects the states concern with losing revenue.
I did see the footage of that story in the news and I do agree with you that the extra mile the journalist go to find the issues most concern the public health deserve an applause. I was more upset with the health inspector than the restaurant owner, there was no way he could not notice that much of rats in the restaurant. The restaurant owners need to be honest with the public and concern their health. It is not the journalist who always to be there and find those kind of issues, even when the health inspectors miss. I was so discouraged to go out there and eat fast food any more. There are always dramas in the fast food industry. There are more uncovered ones I believe.
Heather, you seem to have pointed out a trend.... rats must just like Taco Bell! I can't believe that you saw rats there and now it's on the news but at a different location. I also like Taco Bell (no I'm not a rat haha) but I this story makes me a little uneasy. How could the employees not care enough to talk to their managers? And if managers knew, why wouldn't they do something about it? I wonder if the employees still got their employee meals and were ok with eating rat food or if they were just ok with serving it. Gross.
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