For centuries, rats have lived alongside humans. We have viewed these rodents with both fear and revulsion, and many horror stories have cropped up along the way. Among these stories are rumors that abnormal rats have grown to large sizes, some as big as a housecat.
During World War I, soldiers often found themselves plagued by rats in their trenches. They claimed to have seen giant rats gorging themselves on the dead, and that any who were too injured to move stood a chance of being eaten alive. In modern times, large cities like New York occasionally report giant rats stalking their sewers and backstreets, occasionally attacking passerby.