Racehorse Smart Latch Served as Soup Kitchen Meal

0:00On March 15, a champion racehorse met a tragic end in Southern Turkey, served up to diners at a municipal soup kitchen without anyone knowing. The four-year-old mayor named Smartlatch had won three races before retiring with a leg injury last October. Last month, a resident bid into his caverma dish in the Yenshear District of Mercen Province and found a strange microchip. Investigators from the Agriculture Ministry tested the food on February 4 and confirmed horse meat in that batch in the day before. They destroyed 213 kilograms of the caverma right away. Slottering registered racehorses like her is against the law in Turkey where they're usually protected or re-homed. The horse had earned 1,125,000 Turkish lira in prize money during her short career. Her owner arranged for her to go to a local riding club by a trusted transporter, but she never arrived. Instead, her meat was mislabeled as beef and sold to the soup kitchen supplier. Public outrage has been intense over the scandal, with locals furious about eating a prize

1:03animal. The owner expressed deep distress and got hit with the 132,000 Turkish lira fine for not privately reporting the planned. Donation. He says catching those responsible matters more than the penalty. Meanwhile, the municipality insists the meat came from approved sources, but the soup kitchen now sits on a list of unsafe spots. Officials continue digging into how smartlatch slipped through the cracks and ended up as someone's meal.