Police arrest dog meat trader in Malawi
A man who wanted to sell dog meat at Mgona Market in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe is in police custody after being arrested on Friday.
Constable Salome Chibwana, deputy public relations office Kanengo Police Station said officiers arrested Abel Gondwe, 23 after police were tipped off by a driver who works for the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM).
“The driver tipped us off that he had seen a man busy skinning a dog. We rushed to the scene and arrested Gondwe while busy preparing the dog,” said Chibwana.
“ We interrogated him and he confessed that he wanted to roast and sell it as kanyenya at Mgona Market,” she said.
Chibwana said the dog is believed to have been hit by a vehicle along Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) M1 Road near MIM offices.
The suspect comes from Bwengu in Traditional Authority Jalavikuwa Munthali in Mzimba.
Police said Gondwe will answer a charge of selling noxious food, which is contrary to Section 194 of the Penal Code.
He is expected to appear before Nkukulu Magistrate’s Court on Monday to answer the charge which attracts a maximum sentence of seven years.
Eaters of dog meat claim there are many benefits, claiming it improves sex life, curing diseases and giving protection against charms among other benefits.
But a medical doctor dismisses such arguments, saying that is mere superstition.
“People who eat dog meat only use those excuses to convince themselves that what they are doing is okay.”
Published reports last year indicated that people in parts of Malawi have been eating dog meat thinking it was lamb after a trader, Yohane Nyelere, killed dogs and sold the meat to the unsuspecting public.
Police last year arrested Nyelere on suspicion that he went about buying dogs which he then killed, skinned and sold to the public.
The 22-year-old Nyelele was buying dogs before killing them and disposing of their heads. Police were led to a secluded place the trader used for skinning the dogs where they found a decomposing head and sin of a dog
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