Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Photo courtesy of Maria Azzurra Mugnai

Tough to mistake canines for quackers, but that is what an enterprising Minneapolis TV journalist did when trying to determine if a New York City Chinatown meat market was selling cuts of man's best friend.

WCCO reporter James Schugel called up a Dak Cheong Chinatown Meat Market and asked point blank if they sold dog for cuisine. The meat market man at the other end responded "yes" (Mediabistro has the transcript here).

So when Schugel’s report came out, the New York City authorities decided to investigate … and found no evidence of dog meat anywhere. It turns out the butcher thought Schugel was talking about duck, not dog.

(Some reports on the story here and here.)

How did WCCO initially respond? The news station pulled the story from its website, without an explanation or official retraction. 

Days passed. The Minnesota branch of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Association jointly called for WCCO to issue an apology. The rumor mill began firing -- would Schugel and editors be fired?

More than two weeks after the originally story aired, WCCO released a statement that was more indignant than repentant. MinnPost has the story on the statement.

From the WCCO statement:

• When we called the market, the person we spoke to said he didn’t speak English, but then gave an interview in English. We asked him if the market sold dogs, and we believed he answered in the affirmative. We now believe that he said, “Duck.”
• Since our report and a full two months after the last shipment of dogs, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets searched the markets for dogs and found no evidence to sustain the claim that they were being sold at that location. It is interesting to note that this same establishment was searched by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets last December, based on a similar complaint, and there was no evidence to sustain that claim.

So no apology from WCCO and a jab at the meat market for being investigated by New York twice. I guess when it comes to Asian food establishments, it’s presumed shady until proven innocent?

Asian restaurants have it no easier. Nationwide, people are calling owners of Asian food restaurants and setting up appointments for health and safety inspections.

But these callers are not real inspectors -- they are scammers trying to extract money from the restaurant illegally. This particular scam has become a frequent occurrence over the past two years in numerous states.

Scammers seem to be targeting owners of ethnic food restaurants, especially Asian food restaurants. So far, owners seem to be holding their own and refusing to bite on the scam.

The scammers may actually be trying to set up fake Craigslist or eBay accounts using restaurant information, with the aim of selling fake services or merchandise to others, on those accounts. They target owners of Asian food restaurants, thinking that immigrants and non-English speakers can be confused or scared into compliance.

But restaurateurs have proven more savvy than the scammers anticipated. The owners know that inspectors rarely, if ever, call to schedule an inspection appointment. Legitimate inspectors show up unannounced. So when scammers announce they are calling to schedule an inspection, the red flags go up. One scammer happened to call a restaurant owner in Des Moines, IA, when an actual inspector was at the establishment.

Hyphen is going to have in-depth coverage of this nationwide scam. Stay tuned.