A large Asian grocery store in Sunrise that carries specialty items such as fresh jellyfish and dried seaweed has been hit with criminal charges for mistreating wildlife being sold as food.
New York Mart, part of a Chinese grocery chain based in Queens, N.Y., delivers bamboo shoots, pig’s ears, Peking duck and other delicacies to South Florida’s Asian community. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says the store crammed live softshell turtles and frogs into containers that didn’t allow them to move, failed to provide clean water and committed other violations.
Several of 27 turtles packed tightly into a Styrofoam container were bleeding and one was dead, according to a commission report. “There were signs of the turtles scratching and biting the container trying to get out,” the report stated.
Frogs were stacked on top of each other in tanks, some covered with lesions. The tank did not have the required dry area for the frogs, and the water was “murky with slime,” the report stated. The wildlife officer found three dead frogs in the tank.
In an interview at the store, Steve Wen Pan, an employee who spoke for New York Mart because he speaks English, said the store acquired a new manager last week who corrected the problems. He pointed to the large metal turtle tank, where a few turtles were immersed in water but had several inches between them, allowing them to move. At the adjacent tank, fist-sized frogs were crowded together and not moving, but none were stacked on top of each other.
“Everything’s correct,” he said. “It’s nice. They now have room. There is a Chinese way, but now we do everything the American way.”
The brightly lit store, on Sunset Strip at Nob Hill Road, bears little resemblance to the cramped Asian markets in some South Florida strip malls. Almost as big as a Publix or Winn-Dixie, the store has large sections of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and fish.
The many aisles are lined with Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese foods, such as bean paste buns, dried noodles, lotus root, fresh duck eggs, duck tongues, pigs’ lips, live fish in tanks, Chinese candies in bright, primary color wrappers and a vast variety of teas and bottled sauces.
The wildlife case opened as a result of an anonymous complaint. During the initial inspection on May 14, the seafood manager was issued criminal citations for the same violations involving turtles and frogs, as well as selling wildlife without a permit, according to the report. A reinspection on Aug. 14 revealed similar problems.
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