A horrified tenant alleges that “foot-long” rats have “ripped apart” his kitchen and nibbled through his furniture.
Michael Rutherford, 57, of Grimsby, Lincolnshire, claims he hasn’t been able to eat or sleep since the rodents initially infiltrated his home in early September.
But things got a lot worse yesterday morning (October 26) when he observed a rat in his kitchen that he claims looked like a “small cat.”
His clothes have been ripped to shreds, and he alleges that the smell of urine greets him every time he enters the room, according to Grimsby Live.
Michael, who is incapacitated following a stroke in 2019, claimed he was “frightened to death” to find the deceased creature behind his washing machine and that it looked like a “small cat”.
He told, “When I got up I saw something and I just thought it was a shadow, but when I pulled the washing machine back I saw this massive rat, it was like a small cat. I shut the kitchen door and thought, ‘What do I do?’.
“I managed to take two photographs of it and then rang my sister and she came all the way from Barton (around eight miles away). It frightened me to death, it was huge.”
Michael, who has lived in the house for 22 years, said he contacted Sanctuary Housing, his housing provider.
A pest control worker was dispatched to his residence to rid of the creature, marking the fifth visit by pest control since the beginning of September.
Initially, rat poison was only put in Michael’s garden because he has a pet dog, but employees soon spread the poison inside his home after the situation did not improve.
The concerned renter said he now had to tie his bathroom door to his front room door at night with a scarf to prevent his 14-year-old dog from accessing anywhere in the house where the rat poison is spread.
A spokesperson for Sanctuary Housing said staff will be visiting Michael’s property again in the coming days and that they remain “committed” to supporting him.
On November 10, workers are set to dismantle his kitchen, fill in any holes where the rats are coming from and put the same kitchen back together.
But Michael said the entire kitchen smells of rat urine and is “full of holes”. He claims he should be fitted with a new kitchen since his current one is 32 years old.
He had previously stated, “That kitchen is falling to bits, it smells like rat urine and is full of holes. And November 10 is too far away. I’ve rung about eight times and told them I’m going to have a breakdown, that I want to move out of the property – but I’ve got nowhere to go. It’s madness.”
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