Louisiana State Health Department Tosses More Than $8000 Worth Of Donated Meat

[UPDATE] The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has released a statement defending their decision.

[ORIGINAL STORY] Gary Is FIRED UP! He heard about how the Louisiana Department of Health went into a the Shreveport Bossier Rescue Mission (which provides food for the homeless) and tossed more than $8000 worth of donated meat into the dumpster. Gary has vowed to make sure this never happens again. Here is the complete story:

The Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission must now find a way to replace $8,000 of meat that a State Health Inspector decided to throw in a dumpster and douse with Clorox!!

The meat was venison or "deer meat" donated by Hunter's For The Hungry by area sportsmen, was intended for our area's homeless. Hunter's For The Hungry is endorsed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries but the State Health Department says they don't recognize the program so when the Health Inspector checked the meat, they discarded it.

The meat was donated from Bellevue Meat Processing in Haughton to the Rescue Mission and according to Rev. Henry Martin, Executive Director of the mission, was "extremely valuable" to them. "We didn't find anything wrong with it. It was processed correctly, it was packaged correctly."

But on January 28, a Health Department Inspector came and said the meat couldn't be eaten at the Rescue Mission because "it was donated by a hunter." The rescue mission does not receive any city, state or federal funds. They operate solely on the donations of from the public. And officials there say that this situation has hurt everyone involved, especially those who are less fortunate in our area.

See the full story as originally reported by KTBS TV 3.