newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

In our “because you need to know” department, the Newsroom has learned that a mouse would largely dissolve if kept in a bottle of Mountain Dew.

This information came to light as a result of a lawsuit brought against Pepsi Co. Madisonrecord.com reported that in 2009, plaintiff Ronald Ball claims that he found a dead mouse in a can of Mountain Dew he bought in a vending machine at work.

Then, according to ABC News, Ball put the mouse in a Styrofoam cup and contacted Pepsi. Ball’s attorney Samantha Unsell said a Pepsi representative came for the dead mouse, but the evidence appears to have now been destroyed.

Pepsi’s argument in its own defense, I think, is that the powerful ingredients in a can of Mountain Dew would have turned the mouse’s body into a “jelly-like substance” before the can got to the vending machine.

Digitaljournal.com reports that Pepsi expert in veterinary pathology, Lawrence D. McGill, said, "If a mouse is submerged in a fluid with the acidity of Mountain Dew," it would have no calcium remaining in its bones by around four to seven days, and its abdominal structure will rupture within that time period." He said the mouse would have turned to jelly after 30 days.

According to thestar.com, McGill said the dead mouse he performed an autopsy on (you think you hate your job) three months after Pepsi said the can of pop was bottled was at most two to four weeks old and may have been “a very young rat.”

Ball seeks damages in excess of $50,000. Pepsi is expected to defend itself in Illinois Circuit Court on Jan. 11.