Last year, a 19 year-old boy in Des Moines, Iowa sued Hansen Beverage Company after opening a can of Monster Energy Drink chugging, then finding that he had just ingested the debris of a dead mouse. The story made everyone want to vomit and brought a whole different meaning to the brand’s slogan, “Unleash the Beast.” At the time, Hansen Beverage Company reportedly refused to believe the boy, and remained mum on the lawsuit.
Currently, PepsiCo is experiencing a similar scandal after a man in Madison County, IL claims to have found a dead mouse in his can of Mountain Dew in 2009. According to Gizmodo, Ronald Ball claims to have bought a can of Mountain Dew from a vending machine, drank it, then after becoming violently ill, poured the soda into a styrofoam cup and found that it contained a dead mouse.
From there, according to Ball, the adjusters mishandled the mouse carcass evidence, and now the whole scandal has made it to court where Pepsi, unlike Hansen Beverage Company, has presented counter-evidence against Ball’s accusation. Amazingly, their evidence makes Ball’s claim even more disgusting.
Gizmodo reports, “Pepsi has moved to dismiss the case, according to the Madison St. Clair Record. Why, you ask? It cited expert testimony that the mouse would have dissolved in the soda before Ball ever had the chance to drink it.”
That’s right, Pepsi’s defense is that due to the contents of a Mountain Dew, a dead rodent would have become a “jelly-like” substance before Ball ever had a chance to find it and become violently ill.
There are already plenty of reasons to not drink Mountain Dew. It tastes gross, looks like vitamin pee and has enough caffeine and sugar to ruin an entire afternoon. Now consider the possibility that any time you chug a Mountain Dew you could be drinking a liquified mouse unbeknownst to you, and, what’s arguably worse, even when you’re not drinking a rodent you’re drinking something that has the power to dissolve one.
It’s still unclear whether or not Ball found a mouse in his Mountain Dew, but regardless of who wins, both parties have made strong cases against ever consuming another can of the neon yellow softdrink.
January 03, 2012 at 2:29 pm, Darrenhalm said:
This is news to you? I learned coke would take rust off nails and paint off cars when I was a child. We actually did the rusty nail experiment in grade school science class. In surprised this info surprises you.
January 03, 2012 at 3:40 pm, Drew Butler said:
This has nothing to do with Mountain Dew specifically. This is just what these types of drinks do. The acids that are used to help stabilize the flavors are quite potent, but are in such low doses, that it takes quite a bit of time for them to cause massive damage. The fact is, our stomach acid is leaps and bounds more corrosive and dangerous than what is in one of these drinks.
Could it dissolve a mouse? Absolutely, but it would take weeks, if not months to do so fully. Pepsi’s case is solidly made from the fact that most soda sits on a shelf, or in a warehouse, for long enough to make this happen.