Owner fined after racehorse meat served at Turkish soup kitchen

MERSİN

An owner of a retired racehorse whose meat was served in a municipal soup kitchen in the southern province of Mersin has been fined 132,108 Turkish Liras ($2,988) for failing to report the animal’s donation to authorities, according to local media reports.

The case emerged after a diner at a soup kitchen run by the Mersin municipality complained to the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry after finding a foreign object in a serving of “kavurma,” a dish typically made with fried beef or lamb.

Investigators from the ministry later determined the object was an electronic identification microchip belonging to Smart Latch, a four-year-old English thoroughbred mare that had won first-place finishes at the hippodrome in the nearby city of Adana.

Laboratory analysis of the food sample confirmed the dish contained horse meat.

Details emerged after a March 12 ministry update, which said the kavurma from Mersin municipality's soup kitchen had been "added to the list of unsafe products after testing showed it contained meat from a single-hoofed animal" — a horse, donkey or mule.

Authorities traced the meat to Smart Latch, which had last raced in October 2025 before being retired due to a leg injury.

The horse’s owner, businessman Suat Topçu, said he had arranged to have her donated to a riding club, using a local transporter he knew, but had no idea what actually happened to the mare until he was contacted by the ministry.

“I was devastated when I found out what had happened,” he said.

Authorities fined Topçu for failing to formally notify officials about the donation of the horse, a procedural requirement under existing regulations.

"The fine is not important; what's important is finding those who committed this cruelty,” Topçu said.

Investigators quoted believe the horse never reached the riding club and was instead taken for slaughter and suspect her meat was falsely labelled as "beef" then sold to the company that supplies the municipality.

In response, the municipality said the meat used had been sourced in line with the necessary regulations.