A Chinese restaurant in Kentucky has been closed down by officials after roadkill was found inside its kitchen, reports say.
Last week, customers dining at Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Ky., reportedly spotted a dead deer stuffed inside a trash can that was dragged into the establishment's kitchen.
"It was really disturbing. There was actually a blood trail that they were mopping up behind the garbage can,” one customer told WTVR.com. "There was like a tail, and like a foot and leg sticking out of the garbage can and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen."
Environmental health inspector Paul Lawson was soon called in to verify this gruesome claim.
According to WTVR.com, Lawson said that when he entered the restaurant's kitchen, he stumbled upon "the craziest thing he's ever seen."
"Upon arrival, I confirmed they did have a deer carcass in the facility,” he said.
Lawson told Lex18.com that the animal "had already been gutted" by the time he arrived, which raised "many health and illness" concerns.
Officials say the restaurant owner's son admitted to bringing the deer -- which had allegedly been roadkill found along Interstate 75 -- "into the kitchen of the restaurant in order to clean and dress it," Lex18.com reports.
The restaurant was immediately shut down and the owner's son was cited for having a "white-tailed deer without a tag."
“They said they didn’t know that they weren’t allowed to,” Lawson said, adding that he was concerned this may not have been the first time that the restaurant has brought roadkill onto its premises.
According to WTVR.com, the owners of the restaurant told Lawson that they had intended "to take the deer home and hadn't planned to serve it to a customer."
But this was little consolation to some patrons.
"I don't think I'll ever eat Chinese food ever again," said one customer who says she was dining at the restaurant when the deer carcass was hauled in.
Lawson said the restaurant will be allowed to reopen after an inspection proves that it has been completely cleaned and sanitized, WYMT reports.
Though some customers of this Kentucky restaurant were thoroughly repulsed by the thought of a roadkill feast, dead animals peeled off the tarmac is the food of choice for some daring diners. According to an earlier report by The Huffington Post, a U.K. man named Jonathan McGowan has been living off roadkill for more than three decades.
In the United States, it is legal in some states to harvest roadkill for personal use -- whether that be for the dead animals' pelt or for food.
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