NEW YORK—According to a source huddling nearby in the basement of an apartment building, a local rat mother came under fire Tuesday for allegedly savoring one child over another. “Right now, she has a litter of seven in her burrow, and anyone who’s been over there has seen the way she relishes some of those babies more than others,” said the source, a fellow brown rat who argued that after a mother gives birth to her young, she should taste them all equally, lest some wind up feeling neglected or unflavorful. “The siblings who are devoured with less attention are going to notice, and they’re going to develop inferiority complexes when see how eagerly their mother cannibalizes the ones who happen to have been born a bit plumper.” Observing that such behaviors were passed down from generation to generation, the source added that two months from now the rat mother would probably be savoring one grandchild over another.