{"id":360244,"date":"2026-09-29T23:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/360244\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:46:09","slug":"obese-rat-dies-escaping-nyc-trash-can-but-locals-laud-sick-scene-as-high-art-new-york-sculpture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/360244\/","title":{"rendered":"Obese rat dies escaping NYC trash can \u2014 but locals laud sick scene as high art: \u2018New York sculpture\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even rodent-weary New Yorkers were deeply moved by the sight of a rat so fat it died<\/a> after gorging on garbage in Riverside Park \u2014 with some comparing the sidewalk scene to high art or \u201ca New York sculpture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rat was found squeezed and slumped between the bars of a trashcan near Riverside\u2019s 103rd Street steps Tuesday afternoon, where it apparently got stuck after slinking through the slats for a taste of the dog poo piled high within.<\/p>\n

It hung there with its black eyes open and aghast on the overcast day, its little paws outstretched, as if scrabbling to free itself before finally giving in to fate.<\/p>\n

\"AThe fat rat was spotted dead in a trashcan in Riverside Park Tuesday, where it got stuck after gorging on garbage. Steven Vago\/NY Post<\/p>\n

And while some passersby shrugged at the sight \u2014 writing it off as just another day in the city \u2014 others commiserated with the bloated beast\u2019s predicament, and were even moved by it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God. What a terrible death,\u201d Upper West Sider April told The Post while walking her dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also looks like a sculpture, a New York sculpture,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Wenzel, 57, agreed, calling the rat \u201ca New York City still life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a still life, like dead things in a painting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another even compared the scene to the \u201cDeath of Marat,\u201d a 1793 portrait of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat\u2019s murder in a bathtub. Much like the fat rat in the trash can, the painting captured Marat with his arms outstretched, the pain of injustice etched upon his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m assuming it just couldn\u2019t get through,\u201d Wenzel later lamented.<\/p>\n

\"Painting\u201cThe Death of Marat,\u201d a 1793 oil the image of the fat rat was compared to.<\/p>\n

Still, some New Yorkers weren\u2019t<\/a> impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s New York City. It\u2019s everywhere. I live nearby and they call it Rat Street,\u201d Rio Sultan, 27, a grad student at Columbia University. \u201cI moved a year ago and I was shocked when I would see rats but now I\u2019m getting used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s gross,\u201d said another, while a third gasped at the sight and fled.<\/p>\n

But William Glendon, an 80-year-old Upper West Sider, stopped to reflect on not only the rat\u2019s death \u2014 but the life it lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not offended by them,\u201d Glendon said, wisely. \u201cEveryone seems to hate them, so it\u2019s not a popular opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lived a good life, living in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even rodent-weary New Yorkers were deeply moved by the sight of a rat so fat it died after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1149,1840,57,9,24,55,54,56,30915,6389,8449,5227,58],"class_list":["post-360244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-art","tag-death","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-painting","tag-rats","tag-riverside-park","tag-sculptures","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}