In one temporary theater, a rat ran over her foot during a show.

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Mr Sullivan cleverly uses the rat as a way of burrowing into New York's hidden history and forgotten men, such as Kit Burns, a rat-pit impresario, who ran the city's most popular entertainment in the mid-1800s until cornered by crusading animal-rights activists.

ECONOMIST: Rats

In fact, last year TWU Local 100 ran a YouTube video noting that for every rat subway riders saw, there were 8-10 more in hidden areas throughout the subway system.

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Each rat had, in effect, grown a new nervous system which ran from the motor cortexes of its brain, down its spinal column, past the breaks in its spine and into its back legs.

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