Ky. restaurant closed due to roadkill

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WILLIAMSBURG, Ky., Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A Kentucky health inspector said a Chinese food restaurant was ordered to shut down after he discovered a roadkill deer in the eatery's kitchen.

Paul Lawson, the Whitley County environmental health inspector, said a patron at the Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg called his office Thursday afternoon and reported workers at the restaurant had brought a dead deer through the dining area in a garbage bin, WYMT-TV, Hazard, reported Tuesday.

Witness Katie Hopkins said a tail, foot and leg could be seen sticking out of the garbage can as two workers wheeled it by. She said they were "trying to be real quick with it ... so nobody could see it" as they took it "straight back into the kitchen."

Lawson said he arrived at the restaurant and discovered the roadkill deer carcass in the kitchen. He said the owner's son admitted to picking up the deer from the side of the road.

"They said they didn't know that they weren't allowed to. So that makes me concerned. But maybe they could have before. They didn't admit to doing it before," Lawson said.

He said the man told him he was planning to serve the deer to his family, not to restaurant patrons.

Lawson said the eatery can reopen if it passes a secondary inspection and prove is provided it has been washed and sanitized.

He said the owners of business will not face any fines.