Chinese restaurant dogged by greyhound rumours

Bosses at a top Chinese restaurant fear their business could be wrecked after false rumours swept that they were serving up dog meat to diners. Estelle Johnston, who has run China Rose in Bawtry, near Doncaster, for almost three decades, spoke out after hearing several versions of a similar story from friends, neighbours and customers. She said the rumour revolves around a woman diner who apparently choked on a microchip after eating a meal during a party at the venue, which was supposedly identified later as a chip which had been from a former racing greyhound.

It has been alleged that both police and paramedics were called to the restaurant to deal with the fictitious incident, with the accusation being repeated that retired greyhounds from Sheffield were being used in the food. Mrs Johnston branded those behind the stories 'morons' and said her manager, Eugene Chee, had called her several times to say that bookings were being cancelled as a result of people believing what they heard. She added: "Three weeks ago I got a call from the manager saying people were ringing up to say they thought we had been closed down. Later there was a call from a friend in Mansfield who understood we had been closed because we had dirty kitchens.



"Then the manager rang me again to say he thought we had a serious problem, because somebody had just phoned up and said they had heard that a diner had choked in the restaurant on a microchip from a dog. Since then people have been ringing us up saying they want to cancel and even asking for refunds on deposits they have made on bookings for the busy Christmas period. It is a nightmare. It is hard enough doing business at the moment without suffering an attack like this. My first attitude was to laugh it off, but the effects it is having are actually frightening."

"The moronic people who start these things have no idea of the implications. It takes years to build up a good reputation but it doesn't take long to get a bad one. This could absolutely ruin us." Doncaster Council's environmental health team said it had not received any complaints about China Rose, but was aware of the false rumours which were circulating about the greyhound and the microchip. Officers have been to see Mrs Johnston and her staff in a bid to stamp out the stories and are set to produce a letter which will be displayed on the premises which they hope will help to scotch the rumours.