Liputan6.com, Geylang – Unsavory rumors have hit the Geylang Serai Raya Bazaar in Singapore. It is said that there are satai made from cat and dog meat being sold there.
This information was reportedly widely circulated via WhatsApp and Facebook over the last two weeks.
As quoted from Asia OneThursday (8/6/2017), a message circulating on Whatsapp contained a warning that ‘kiosk 124’ was caught by Ministry of Health (MOH) officials for mixing dog and cat meat into their satai meat marinade.
On Facebook, posts circulated about the incident, including several photos. Some show a man being arrested by the authorities, a dog being slaughtered, as well as a picture of several men bent over a pile of pieces of meat in a basin.
When contacted, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said there had been no arrests in the case of selling a mixture of dog and cat meat into food.
MOM only confirmed that arrests were made on 22 unlicensed food sellers and illegal workers. All of them were caught in a raid carried out in March 2017.
Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) stated that they had heard the news, and were currently investigating the truth of the rumor.
“The NEA received information about messages circulating online on linewho claimed that a stall at Geylang Serai Bazaar was selling satai made from dog and cat meat,” explained the NEA in a statement.
“Based on NEA’s inspection on 31 May 2017, stall 124 at Geylang Serai Bazaar was selling ‘jerky’ satai, not as claimed in the post on line. Further investigations are ongoing,” the statement added.
Chinese evening newspaper Wanbao on June 7 reported the results of an NEA investigation that the rumors circulating were not true. And, only the image of the man arrested by authorities was originally from Singapore.
Other images circulating come from various sources on the web.
This is the third scandal to hit the popular food market, Geylang Serai Raya Bazaar, following a crackdown on unlicensed food sellers and an uproar online that the majority of food sold there was non-halal.
