A London restaurant has closed over alleged frozen dog meat and multiple health code violations.
Vietnamese restaurant Pho Na shut down after inspectors found suspicious meat labeled “goat wrapped in leaves,” Metro reported. An analysis confirmed the meat was dog, not goat.
The health inspectors also found cockroaches and mice droppings in the restaurant, the outlet said.
The owner, Vuong Quoc Nguyen, denied the health code violations in court Tuesday. His defense attorney said Nguyen was unaware that the product was dog meat, because it had been given to him by someone else. The attorney also said Nguyen never intended to sell the meat and had hired pest control to deal with the cockroaches.
The Lewisham Council said it did not order Nguyen to close Pho Na and said the store was “sold independently.”
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About 40% of people in Vietnam eat dog meat, according to the Humane World for Animals. The dog meat trade kills about five million dogs a year.
It is illegal to sell dog meat in the United Kingdom, but it is legal to kill and eat dogs if the animals are killed humanely.
The U.K. almost banned the consumption of dog meat in 2019, but the Ministry of Justice blocked the move over concerns that it was “culturally insensitive,” The Sun reported at the time.
Former Member of Parliament Giles Watling told the outlet he was “surprised” by the decision.
“We do not eat [dogs], and that is a very important message to send to the rest of the world,” Watling said at the time. “It’s not culturally insensitive because we’re not telling them what to do – we’re just telling them what we do.”
The United States banned “knowingly slaughtering a dog or cat for human consumption” in 2018.
