Shocked at seeing rats at food outlet
FOR 63-year-old Eusof Izzudin, the visit to a 24-hour restaurant in Desa Pandan with his foreign friends last month would be his last to the outlet if authorities do not make an effort to clean up the area.
“I was with my friends who were visiting the country for the first time, when one woman friend saw a big rat running under our table,” Eusof said.
“She shrieked in disbelief and refused to touch any of the food on the table,” Eusof told StarMetro in an email.
“Eradicating rats here and there once in a while is not the solution. A concerted effort to get rid of the menace in the city and its surrounding areas should be made to make our city a safer, cleaner and healthier place to live in,” he said.
“Rats breed at a very fast rate and if no action is taken immediately, we will not be able to solve the problem later,” Eusof said.
Carol Cheong, who lives near the Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park, said she had sent several letters informing the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to clean up the area.
“The DBKL people would come and check but nothing permanent is done. And the problem continues,” she said.
Cheong said that the food operators did not have grease traps but just had leftovers strewn all over the drain.
According to Carlos Loh of Cheras, he has seen a foot-long rat roaming about at a eating place.
“After seeing a huge rat running under the tables at one eating place, I told myself that was the last I would be visiting the outlet,” Loh said.
Loh said the incident happened one night when he and a group of friends met up for tea after work and had to lift their feet up when they saw the rat running towards their table.
“We see rats all the time when we eat at the stalls but they are always further then where my table is placed, so it doesn’t bother me much,” said a customer who only wants to be identified as Tan.
Tan said he had no choice but to eat at such places and 24-hour restaurants as the food was cheaper.
“I will pay more to ensure that the food that I am eating is clean. I will save on other less important stuff,” said Andrea Loh, who does not want to gamble her health at dirty stalls.
An executive who often goes to SS2 Petaling Jaya for his favourite Penang hawker food said he had seen rats as big as cats at the back lanes of the coffee shops there.
He said that the lanes and drains on the side of the SS2 food court were also filled with leftover foodstuff and he had also seen rats, both big and small, running around the area.
The executive said the local authorities should engage pest control firms to monitor, control and eliminate the rodents.
If lack of funds is the problem, he suggested that each food stall operator be made to pay perhaps RM10 a month towards the cost of engaging the pest control firm.
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So who should be blame for the rats problem? Clearly it seems that DBKL should be responsible. But at the same time I think that the food stall operator/restaurant owners should be responsible and contribute to help solve the problem. But it doesn't seem to be happening, we have this mentally that if is doesn't effect me personally then it is not my problem.
Clearly the restaurant owners seem to be OK with rats running around their shops and around the place where they prepare food and to be honest I am sure that some Malaysians don't even care about it. Why do I say this? Well its because I have certain friends who don't care if they are rats running around inside or outside the shops. According to them that is the way of life and we must understand that animals are here for a reason too. Well he may have a point but when it comes to food preparation then I am very particular and need to be sure that the food is clean and safe. I am sure that many of us agree to this. But yet we still have massive rat infestation problems around KL. If you don't believe me then try walking around Chow Kit and I am sure you will spot one or two of the them.
The only way to solve this problem is by having DBKL cooperate with food stall and restaurant owners. This is the only way to reduce the number of rats running around our capital city.
