(RU) Chinese Restaurant Investigated for Serving Dog

[Guest guest]

Strays served as mutton

news24.com

29/10/2007

 

Moscow - A Chinese restaurant chain in Moscow has

slaughtered stray dogs and served them to its

customers as mutton, a spokesperson for the local

authorities was quoted as saying by the Interfax news

agency on Monday.

 

Food inspectors found dogs' heads and disembowelled

bodies at the restaurant, while other animals for

slaughter were being held in a cage, the spokesperson

said.

 

" Chinese chefs slaughtered the dogs at the restaurant

and prepared their meat as a delicacy, " according to

spokesperson Philipp Solotnizki.

 

Criminal proceedings over fraud and animal cruelty

have been brought against the owner of the restaurant

chain, which has been closed in the meantime.

 

Found canine carcasses

 

The food inspectors found out about the fraud after

being tipped off by customers.

 

On leaving the restaurant two men noticed how sacks

were carried through the restaurants' back door and

that something in the sacks was moving.

 

After the men made a complaint, food inspectors

visited the restaurant incognito, ordered several

dishes and took samples.

 

Analyses in Russian laboratories showed that the

customers had been illegally served dog meat, the

authorities said.

 

In a later raid, investigators found canine carcasses

as well as living dogs.

 

Animal rights activists had in August complained about

the disappearance of large numbers of stray dogs from

the city and notified the public prosecutor.

 

Residents of various Moscow areas claimed that guest

workers from Asia had caught the animals and eaten

them.

 

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2211389,00.html

.........................

Restaurant Investigated for Serving Dog

By Carl Schreck

Staff Writer

Moscow Times

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

 

A Chinese restaurant in southwest Moscow is being

investigated on suspicion of rounding up dogs on the

street, killing them and passing their cooked meat off

to customers as lamb, city police said Monday.

 

Two residents went to police after seeing suspicious

activity near the restaurant, located at 88 Prospekt

Vernadskogo, near the Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station,

police spokeswoman Irina Volk said.

 

" They reported seeing a truck pull up to the

restaurant and restaurant employees unloading bags in

which something was moving and whining, " Volk said.

 

After the tip-off, undercover police officers went and

posed as clients, ordering a number of dishes from the

restaurant, which is located in a dormitory near

Moscow State Pedagogical University and caters

primarily to Chinese and Vietnamese clientele, as well

as local students, Volk said.

 

" Tests showed that the meat being sold as lamb was

actually dog meat, " Volk said.

 

Most of the dogs were strays, and many were sick, but

several of the dogs likely had owners and had merely

gotten lost, she said.

 

The dog meat was sold as lamb to most of the

restaurant's clients, but it was advertised as dog to

its Chinese clientele, she said.

 

The consumption of dog meat is common in some parts of

Asia -- particularly China and the Koreas.

 

Police have opened a criminal investigation in

connection with the sale of dangerous food items,

punishable by up to three years in prison, and could

also open an investigation into charges of cruelty to

animals, which carry a sentence of up to two years in

prison.

 

" We have reason to believe that the dogs were killed

in ways that were not humane, " Volk said.

 

She said owners of the restaurant were most likely

Chinese and that they had not been charged as of

Monday.

 

Official estimates of stray dogs in the city put their

number at about 26,000, and reports of people and

restaurants killing strays for food are not uncommon,

said Irina Novozhilova, head of the animal rights

group Vita.

 

" We received four complaints this summer alone, "

Novozhilova said.

 

In July 2004, city police arrested Maxim Kolov, 21,

and charged him with cruelty to animals for allegedly

killing his landlady's dog, a 1-year-old husky-collie

named Tuzik, and frying the dead animal up for him and

his friend to eat.

 

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/30/012.html

.........................

Dogs Dinner

By Kirill Bessonov

The Moscow News

01/11/2007

 

Moscow police reported on Monday that they have

discovered and closed a Chinese restaurant that served

its customers dog meat disguised as mutton and veal. A

police spokeswoman said that the animals were

slaughtered in the restaurant kitchen and almost all

of them were diseased.

 

According to a Moscow police press report, the

restaurant was located in a dormitory for foreign

students on Prospekt Vernadskovo street in the city's

southwest. The place was not named, probably due to

the fact that many Chinese places in Moscow operate

under simple names like " café " or " canteen. "

 

Inspectors had doubts about the quality of food served

in the restaurant for several months, when people from

nearby apartment blocks started complaining about

suspicious vans that brought to the restaurant

" strange bags with something moving and whimpering

inside " and when on the next day a pile of bones was

found in the alley near the restaurant building.

 

However, the police started investigating only after

another complaint by two of the restaurant's

customers, who said that they spotted restaurant staff

carrying " strange barking bags " into the kitchen.

Police officers started a surveillance post and soon

learned that the reports were true: the restaurant

brought captured stray dogs to its kitchen at night.

The police officers' next move was to visit the

restaurant as clients and order some dishes which they

took away with them for laboratory study.

 

The results of the tests were shocking. The meat

described as mutton and veal in the restaurant's menu

turned out to be taken from dogs and puppies.

 

Investigators raided the restaurant and found many dog

bodies stored in the refrigerator and simply in

plastic bags in cabinets and on the floor. The meat

was seized and will be incinerated after forensic

tests. The restaurant was closed.

 

Prosecutors launched a criminal probe into the sales

of foodstuffs potentially dangerous for customers'

health. If the owners of the restaurant are found

guilty they could face up to two years in prison.

 

The police press service also said they were preparing

a case on cruel treatment of animals. Investigators

discovered that the cooks simply chopped off the dogs'

heads, flayed them and stripped the carcasses in the

kitchen.

 

Policemen also said that most of the animals killed in

the Chinese kitchen were ill. Although none of the

restaurant's customers have reported becoming ill so

far, reports may surface now that the news is public.

That could lead to compensation lawsuits, the press

service said.

 

In any case, the restaurant on Prospekt Vernadskovo is

unlikely to operate again, a police spokeswoman said.

 

http://mnweekly.ru/news/20071101/55286439.html

 

 

 

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