Local media reported that a four-year-old thoroughbred filly was slaughtered and served in a restaurant belonging to the Mersin municipality in southern Turkey last month after she was injured during a race. The incident came to light when a diner at the restaurant found something strange in his dish. Investigators from the Ministry of Agriculture discovered it was nothing more than an electronic chip belonging to a racehorse. It turned out the horse, named "Smart Lash," was a thoroughbred filly that had won first place at the racetrack in the nearby city of Adana. Upon examining the components of the "Kavurma" dish, which is typically made from fried beef or lamb, it was found to contain horse meat. The details only became clear after the ministry updated its data on March 12, stating that the Kavurma dish from the Mersin charity restaurant had been added to the list of unsafe products after tests showed it contained meat from a one-hoofed animal. The horse's owner, Suat Topku, told Turkish Dogan news agency on Friday that he was saddened, explaining that the filly, who started racing in 2024, had her last race in October and was then withdrawn from racing after injuring her leg. Topku added that he arranged to donate her to an equestrian club, using a local transporter he knew, but he did not know what had happened to the filly until the Ministry of Agriculture contacted him. The agency reported that the ministry fined him 132,000 Turkish liras (about $3,000) for not officially reporting the donation. "The fine is not the important thing, the important thing is to find those who committed this brutal act," Topku said. Investigators believe the filly did not reach the equestrian club but was taken to the slaughterhouse. They suspect her meat was falsely labeled as "beef" and sold to the company that supplies the municipality. In response, the municipality stated that the meat used was obtained in accordance with applicable regulations.