Update: Customer's fried KFC rat claim proven false

Update: An independent lab has confirmed that the product is chicken. KFC's official statement to the USA TODAY Network:

R ecently, a customer questioned the quality of a KFC product, and this received considerable publicity given the sensational nature of his claim. The product has now been tested by a third-party independent lab, which confirmed it is definitely a piece of chicken, as we knew all along. The right thing for this customer to do is to apologize and cease making false claims about the KFC brand.

Original story:

KFC denies claims that it sold a customer a fried rat in a recent meal.

"We currently have no evidence to support this allegation," KFC said in a statement to USA TODAY Network.

Customer Devorise Dixon posted photos on June 11 to Facebook of the alleged crispy rat.

Dixon claimed he purchased the meal at a KFC located in Compton, Calif. Since sharing the photos online, the images have gone viral with people debating whether or not it is a real rat.

Some, including KFC, have argued that it's just an unusually shaped piece of chicken.

On the same day as the original Facebook post, Dixon shared a second photo on Instagram of the fried item from a different angle.

In the second photo, KFC claims a bite can be seen in the lower right side and it "clearly shows it's a piece of hand-breaded white meat chicken," Rodrigo Coronel, a spokesman for KFC wrote in an email.

"We have extended the opportunity to have an independent lab evaluate the product at our own expense, but the customer refuses to provide the product in question," KFC's statement said.

Dixon has declined to speak with KFC independently or through a lawyer, the statement said.

Dixon has not responded to requests for comment from USA TODAY Network.

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