Utah rat eater has animal cruelty charge dismissed

[October 05, 2011]  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah man who is no longer facing charges for eating a live baby rat says the act was grotesque, but shouldn't be considered as animal cruelty.

Prosecutors charged Andy Ray Harris with animal cruelty in April, after authorities viewed a posted Facebook video of him eating what appeared to be the baby rat. The 31-year-old Tooele man says he ate the rat on a dare.

Prosecutors argued the baby rat deserved protections because it wasn't wild and it was killed in a way that is not an accepted fashion.

Harris says it was not animal cruelty because the rat was going to be eaten by a snake. He also says rats don't have legal protections because they are pests.

[Associated Press]

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