A SCOTS pensioner has blasted Irish customs officials after they seized three tins of haggis.
Ian Stretch, 92, was left outraged when officers allegedly branded his homeland’s iconic dish “dog food”.
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Officials have denied this claim and blamed a misunderstanding of the wording on a customs document.
Mr Stretch had ordered the haggis to celebrate Burns Night with close friends.
The pensioner has lived in Bantry in West Cork, Republic of Ireland, for 20 years.
Despite the assurance of Irish officials, Mr Stretch said: “Free the Haggis Three”
He also called the explanation from officials a “cock and bull story”.
The dispute was sparked when the retired vet, who grew up in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, received a customs note saying his haggis had been impounded.
The bottom of the note included the words ‘food dog’.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine insisted the words referred to the fact the haggis had been identified by a sniffer dog trained to find foodstuffs.
They said: “Meat products imported into Ireland from outside the EU are required, under Irish and EU law, to present to a Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Border Control Post for official controls to mitigate risk to public health or animal health.
“Where a person or a business seeks to import meat products into Ireland from outside the EU, without the required official controls, the Department and Irish Customs work collaboratively to seize and destroy those products.
“In January of this year, the Department and customs intercepted products described as Haggis and destined to a person in Co. Cork which had not been notified and presented to a Border Control Post for appropriate checks, as required under legislation.
“It appears that a reference on the seizure notice to the use of the Food Dog (sniffer dog) in the identification of food in these consignments within the sorting centre has been misinterpreted by the recipient as a reference to ‘dog food’.”
However today Ian Stretch remained defiant, and said: “This sounds like a total cock and balls story.
“I question how a dog could possibly sniff haggis through a tin.
“I remain outraged and want my haggis back – free the haggis three
