Alaska restaurant serving elk fined for calling it reindeer

This might be an only-in-Alaska problem: Arestaurant in Fairbanks that has told customers since 2013 it wasserving reindeer tenderloin was actually giving them elk.

And now The Pump House has been fined $50,000 by the state formislabeling the meat.

The parent company of the restaurant agreed to pay the criminalfine, donate $10,532 to three non-profit food groups and publicallyapologize.

Restaurant co-owner Vivian Bubbel says an advertisementwith the apology ran Saturday in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Shesays the restaurant would have no additional comment.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation investigated.

An employee reported the restaurant had not served reindeer in theyears he worked there and the restaurant manager confirmed the useof elk.

The menu described reindeer tenderloin as "similar to caribouand raised in Western Alaska where they are harvested by the Nativepeople."

The meat actually came from elk in New Zealand.