Chinatown Meat Market Denies Selling Dog Meat (After Admitting It)

Photograph by Jeff Thrower/Shutterstock

[UPDATE BELOW] A CBS affiliate in Minneapolis investigating the owner of an illegal puppy farm reports that at least 170 dogs were sold to a Chinatown meat market, which in turn sold them as food. Dak Cheong Meat Market on 36 East Broadway shares the same address as the Canine Culture Center, CBS reports, and it seems the "culture" there is entirely culinary. Amazingly, a CBS reporter called up Dak Cheong and asked an employee if they sell dog meat. He said yes:

“Do you sell dogs?” asked reporter James Schugel.

“Yea. We sell dog,” said the man who answered the phone.

“Dogs for people to eat?” asked Schugel.

“Uh, yea,” he said. “We sell many kinds of meat.”

“Dogs for people to eat?” asked Schugel.

“Yes,” said the man.

Schugel questioned the man again, just to be clear. He said he does not sell dogs for pets. He only sells them for food.

But we called up the number listed for Dak Cheong this morning, and spoke with employee Mio Ciu. Here's a transcript of our conversation:

Hi, good morning, do you speak English? Uh...no.

But you understood what I said? Yeah.

Do you sell dog meat? No.

Is there someone there who can speak to me? No, this is America, we don't sell dog meat!

Is this Dak Cheong Meat Market? Yeah.

Okay, I saw— No, this is not Dak Cheong Meat Market, this is DC Meat Market.

DC? But that's the same initials as Dak Cheong. No, that is wrong. You have the wrong number.

Where's Dak Cheong? How can I know? That's the owner before, you know.

I see. When did you take over? About ten years ago. No... Last year.

Do you know anywhere you can buy dog meat in Chinatown? No...These past two days many people have called and complained and asked, "Why this store sell dog meat?" Many women and men. I don't know what happened. They called the police, they called the Department of Agriculture, I don't know what happened. Everybody came! They say I sell dog meat. That's crazy! This is America! This is a civilized country! Who sells dog meat? This isn't China!

So did you get in any trouble? No! Because we don't sell dog! How could I get in trouble?

Do you think the old company sold dog meat? No, I don't think so! This is America. Maybe some people hate us. Or they're racist. Or they owe me money. Some customer owes me $10,000. They don't pay me. That's why everybody call the past few days. Makes me crazy.

Ciu then hung up the phone before we could ask him whether he has any cat meat in stock. The state Department of Agriculture has not immediately responded to a request for comment, but we'll update if we hear back. In the meantime, if you want to read a distressing story about the woman accused of running the largest puppy mill in Minnesota, step right this way.

UPDATE: "We did send inspectors there yesterday," Michael Moran, a spokesman for the State Department of Agriculture, tells us. "We found no evidence of dog meat. We're not sure why the person said yes to the reporter; we think there might be a language barrier there. We inspected last December in response to another report of dog meat, and also found nothing. And animal inspectors have gone there but found no evidence of dog. So far there's no evidence that the meat market sold dog meat or ever received dogs."