Roberto Moraes, 46, and Roseli Nascimento, 39, have been arrested in Brazil accused of killing dogs and cats and selling their meat to restaurants catering to mostly oriental customers. The couple lives in Suzano, a city in the Greater São Paulo, in the Brazilian Southeast.
According to the police, the dog and cat slaughterhouse was set in a room in the back of the couple's house. They had been doing business for three years in the Miguel Badra neighborhood. The animals were picked up from the streets and after being killed each one was sold for about 200 reais (US$ 116). The animals' parts not sold were incinerated.
When the police arrived this Thursday, November 12, at the place they found a dog that was about to be killed. The location had two tables, axes, hooks and a freezer with dog and cat meat inside. The frozen bodies of 5 dogs and 2 cats were found in the freezer. The detainees were taken to the 2nd Bureau of Public Health of the DPPC (Department of Police and Citizenry Protection).
The police investigation lasted more than a month and the owners of the business were arrested in flagrante delicto. In a note, chief inspector Anderson Pires Giampaoli from the 2nd Bureau of Public Health informed that the animals were picked up from the streets and then maintained inside the place to be fattened while the owners waited for an order.
"They killed the animals with an ax and then burned the animals hide with a welding torch," explained Giampaoli.
According to him they sold an average of ten animals a week. "They said that they did not know that this was illegal," informed Giampaoli.
Commenting on the fact that the animals were found in the streets, the inspector said, "This is a very serious offense, since we don't know where the animals came from."
The meat was sold to restaurants in the Bom Retiro neighborhood, close to downtown São Paulo. After closing the slaughterhouse the police paid a visit to the restaurants in the afternoon and arrested the owners of two oriental restaurants suspect of selling the meat.
São Paulo state's law 11.977 state tells that, "domestic animals, those living with a human being, who depend on humans and do not reject human submission"Â cannot be raised for food.
The couple and the restaurants owners will be charged for crimes against the fauna, against the environment and for gang formation. The restaurants should be closed by the sanitary surveillance service.
Dog food is a millenary tradition in countries like China, Vietnam, South and North Korea and the Philippines, but restaurants that serve the delicacy are mostly found in restaurants far from the bigger population centers.
