Slaughtered Pakistani sheep sparks panic in Saudi

Saudi authorities went on alert in a small town after a picture of a slaughtered Pakistani sheep circulated on social networks triggered public panic that restaurants were serving dog meat, a newspaper in the Gulf kingdom reported on Tuesday.

Officials at the municipality in the central Afif town were flooded with phone calls enquiring about the picture of a slaughtered sheep that resembles the body of a dog.

'Sabq' said health inspectors rushed to the restaurant where the sheep was supplied and hurried back to the laboratory with samples of that meat.

“Tests showed that the meat is from a sheep imported from Pakistan…the municipality then issued a statement reassuring citizens that it is not dog meat,” it said.

The paper said a meat supply van was offloading the slaughtered sheep for that restaurant when a customer filmed it after he thought it was a dead dog.