Have Rodent Will Travel in Washington DC

US President Barack Obama greets dinners at a Five Guys restaurant before ordering lunch 29 May 2009 in Washington, DC.

Five Guys responds to Inside Edition rodent expose

15 May 2009

After a visit from Inside Edition's Rat Patrol showed mice and rodents at two Washington, D.C.-area Five Guys locations, owners of the brand have shut down the stores until the problem can be addressed.

The television show was visiting the District this week taking aim at area restaurants frequented by the Obama family. Michelle Obama had taken her staff members to lunch at one of the locations in February.

The television program said it found a pack of rats outside the back door of the Dupont Circle restaurant two nights in a row, and at the second location, on Wisconsin Ave., a mouse was observed crawling through sacks of potatoes kept inside the front window. The mouse also was observed two nights in a row.

The Black Death or the Bubonic plague, which spread rapidly mostly throughout Europe (between 1347 and 1351) from rodent fleas; after the rodents where said to have came off of docked ships down the ropes. The estimated death toll was 4 to 7 million, due to the various sources and areas of infestation. Another more common malady of today, is that especially in the United States; that rodents are high carrier's of Rabies, among other contagious problems, which can be found not just the rodents themselves; but there droppings. Which this event in history is a reminder, of how serious a rodent infestation can be on a person's health and well-being; which this problem is not just in eateries in Washington D.C., but serious health risk across the US.

In response to the program, Five Guys released a statement:

"The health and safety of our customers and employees is of primary importance at Five Guys. As such, we have three, independent, third-party, precautionary programs in place to prevent health or safety risks at all of our restaurants. Previous to being notified by Matt Meagher of Inside Edition, we did not have any indicators of rodent infestation at the (Georgetown, D.C.) nor (Dupont Circle, D.C.) locations from our store management or from our third party oversight vendors including the D.C. Health Department.

"We thank Matt Meagher and his team for sending the still photos of a mouse at the Georgetown location and of rodent activity in the dumpster outside of our Dupont location. As a result, we took the most aggressive approach and closed the locations immediately on 5/12/09 and 5/13, respectively. In addition, we scheduled an immediate appointment with our pest control vendor to further investigate the claim. We will not reopen the locations until our pest control services and the local health department reconfirm that we are rodent free.

"Prior to this incident, we proactively scheduled routine visits from independent pest control companies along with a third-party, independent food safety and quality assurance brand protection company. We also receive regular inspections from the local health departments. The first two programs mentioned were started on our own accord to act as a proactive step to protect our customers and our brand. The pest control program has been in place since the opening of the restaurants and our auditing program has been in place, system wide, for over a year. We will use this experience with Inside Edition as an opportunity to research the programs that are in place and to determine where we need to make adjustments to make them more effective."