As part of the investigation, it was found that they were imported. They had to go through the customs/USDA inspections, as any other imported food-stuff would.
The restaurant owners had all of the documentation, and a call to the USDA with the appropriate way-bill and file numbers confirmed it.
I'd like to know how the USDA comes up with a grade for cat. What is the difference between 'prime', 'choice', etc. there must be a written standard for it somewhere...
Maybe cat is ungraded, and there is some cross-importation treaty with Korea or wherever it came from that proof of Korean inspection is enough to get USDA okay and vice versa. Funny that this is OK with them as long as it’s imported cat. Domestic cat, that’s a whole nother ball of yarn.