Houston meat market defends itself after viral video raises sanitary, animal cruelty concerns
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The owner of a Houston meat market is defending himself after a video went viral on Facebook. In the 46 second clip, you can see employees unloading dead animals from what looks like an ice cream truck.
The poster questions the cleanliness of the meat and says, "Don't eat from there!"
Eyewitness News did some digging and discovered the footage was shot outside the Al Ameen Halal Meat Market at the corner of Holly Hall Street and Almeda Road.
Alim Abdurahman owns the business. He said he first became aware of the video yesterday when he started receiving angry calls.
"Not only wish, I want him to take it down or I want him to come personally and see for himself and apologize to the people he really hurt," said Abdurahman. "It really hurt. We spent a lot of money and a lot of time to build this business."
He called the video irresponsible. He said it's taken out of context and from a distance. Abdurahman said the animals in the viral clip are lambs and goats. He said they were raised, slaughtered, and processed locally for Halal meat. The man who took the video misidentified the animals as dogs.
His employees transported them in a freezer truck before moving them into the store's walk-in freezer. Abdurahman invited ABC13 to look at the carcasses for ourselves. He said he recently purchased the freezer truck from an ice cream wholesaler. He hadn't taken their graphics off the vehicle.
ABC13 learned the Houston Health Department sent an inspector to the store following 2 complaints they received this morning.
The meat passed inspection.
The poster and his attorney reached out to Eyewitness News this evening. They said he had no intention to harm the business. He shared the video on social media because he said he was concerned over sanitary issues. He has not made a decision about whether he will remove the video. He wants to talk to the meat market owner first.
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