Australian shoppers have been left horrified after spotting a girl inside a supermarket with pet rats nestled on each of her shoulders.
The pet owner was casually waiting in line on the checkout of a Spudshed food market in Ellenbrook during peak shopping time on Tuesday.
Despite her nonchalant demeanor, onlookers said they were “shocked” on the sight of rodents in such proximity to fresh produce.
“Not something you expect to see each day”
The startling photo, which was shared with Perth Now, showed a hairless rat and a black rat comfortably perched on the lady’s shoulders.
“It was 5 pm within the checkout line, it was busy, and I noticed a girl in front of me with what gave the impression to be two rats round her shoulders,” a customer told the publication.
“Why would she hassle to bring her rats to the shops? It’s just not something you expect to see each day.”
The client said that staff were only alerted to the problem once the lady was already on her way out of the shop, and were “amused” by it.
But other shoppers were lower than impressed.
“Customers were kind of shaking their heads,” the consumer recalled. “I used to be shocked she thought it was okay to come back to the supermarket with rats and with all of the uncovered fresh food.”
“It was incredulous that you just’d find that in a supermarket. The very last thing I need to search out is rat turds in my shopping.”
Kidspot has reached out to Spudshed for comment.
Not the primary pet sighting
It comes after a consumer saw a cat sitting within a trolley in a Canberra ALDI last week.
Upon closer inspection, she realised that it was an assistance pet, which is an animal trained to accompany an individual with a disability or a mental health condition.
After snapping a photograph of the pet, a customer posted it to the ALDI fans Australia Facebook group, writing, “Here is something that’s rare to see in an ALDI store.”
“It’s the primary time I even have ever seen an assistance cat anywhere in public.”