Geylang dog, cat meat rumours refuse to die

PETALING JAYA: The rumours about a hawker selling satays made from dog and cat meat at the at Geylang Serai Raya Bazaar are still being widely spread on the social media. Singapore news portals are also highlighting the purported case.
A new entry in one of them states that Singapore’s National Environment Agency is aware of the rumours and is investigating it.
“The National Environment Agency (NEA) is aware of a message circulating online which claims that a stall in the Geylang Serai Bazaar is selling satay made from dog and cat meat,” it quoted the agency as saying in a statement.
“Based on NEA's inspection on May 31, 2017, Stall 124 at the Geylang Serai Bazaar was selling 'dengdeng' and not satay, as claimed in the online posts. Further investigations are ongoing.”
Rumours of cat and dog meat being sold at the Geylang Serai Raya Bazaar have been circulating via Whatsapp and Facebook these past two weeks.
There were Facebook posts about the incident with several photographs of several hawkers doing the unimaginable. There was a photo of a man being taken away by officials, one with several tubs of satay on the ground, a graphic photo of a mutilated dog, and a photo of several men hunched over a basin skewering meat.
Meanwhile, Chinese evening newspaper Wanbao reported on June7 that the rumours circulated were untrue, based on its investigation.
The Singapore authorities had already debunked the online rumours.
A post on the official Singapore Government website www.gov.sg read: "Factually would like to assure netizens that it was in fact a case of unlicensed foreign food handlers working illegally, and not a case of non-halal dendeng (thinly sliced dried meat) being sold at the Geylang Serai Ramadan Bazaar.
"22 unregistered foreign food handlers, who were also illegal workers, were arrested by the Ministry of Manpower during one of its regular joint operations with the police and the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Tuesday (30/5). Investigations are still on-going.
"We should critically evaluate online content from unofficial sources before sharing them."