Indian officials assured the public in Chennai in south India that a vast quantity of illegal cargo seized from a train was not dog meat.
Residents of Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, were left shell-shocked following reports that officials had seized over 2,000kg of dog meat from a train at Egmore railway station in the city.
On November 17, food safety officials seized several containers that were marked as "fish" after they raised a stench.
The ice boxes revealed rotting carcasses with "long tails," which officials said "anatomically resembled dogs."
The disclosure triggered an outcry in the city with many suspecting a racket supplying dog meat as a cheap substitute for mutton in restaurants.
Meat traders and restaurants said sales of meat dishes had dropped drastically after the reports.
Officials sent samples to a government laboratory and even dispatched an investigation team to Jaipur in Rajasthan from where the meat had originated.
On November 22, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University said they had tested the meat and found that it belonged to sheep or goats and not dogs.
A senior official of the Food Safety Department said the meat supplier would still face legal action, as several rules regulating the long distance transportation of meat had been violated.
"The cargo was not in cold storage, the mandatory slaughterhouse marking on the cargo was missing and it also has not been certified by a veterinarian," he said.
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