SEE: Rat Dad Holds Rodent In Mouth, Horrifying Straphangers

NEW YORK — Some New Yorkers run away from rats, but this guy puts them in his mouth. A rodent-loving subway rider horrified his fellow straphangers when he grabbed a rat by its scruff with his teeth, a new video shows.

For unexplained reasons, the man confidently held his furry friend between his lips for nearly 15 seconds while sitting on a subway train. Another rider seemed excited to take a photo of his talent.

But others were less than pleased — a straphanger seated next to the man grimaced in the background while a woman sitting across the train held her hands over her mouth in apparent shock.

The moving rodent show was filmed by straphanger Cierra Matice and shared on Instagram and Twitter by the popular Subway Creatures account. The footage attracted more than 100,000 views on Instagram in less than 40 minutes Friday morning.

Subway Creatures expressed a sentiment likely shared by many New Yorkers who saw the video: "'Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far, far far away from here' -me right now."

Many Instagram commenters were similarly grossed out. One posited that the rat dad had not seen the newest season of the hit Netflix series "Stranger Things," which might have moved him to pick another talent.

"Yet he will provide no insight as to how he got the plague," another user named Betsy wrote.

The rat wrangler's identity is uncertain, but his act matches up with that of Thomas Sierra, a street performer known as the Rat Man.

He's known for appearing in Times Square and other parts of the city — including the subway — with his cadre of rats, which he sometimes puts in his mouth. Sierra could not be reached Friday at phone numbers listed under his name.

See the full video below.