GET THE BUFFALOES OFF THE ROAD

It is generally agreed that the meat of free-ranging chicken is very much healthier than that from the cooped-up variety.

The free ranging mode of rearing chicken is perhaps the easiest way since chicken, like pigeons, know how to find their way home. You just leave them on their own, even ranging further than they should, at the risk of life and limb. They will be home by nightfall, except those who have met their fate on the road.

You just have to be a little bit more observant to realize that all domesticated animals in Sabah share this same wayward spirit. Buffaloes, cows, horses, goats, sheep, dogs and cats. Every motorist, probably without exception, would have run over a chicken, a cat or a dog as soon as they get a license to drive a motor vehicle.

These animals don’t belong on our roads. The owners are inconsiderate, and the authorities must be guilty of dereliction of their duties to let this go on.

My late mother was seventy-five years old when she was hit by a cow which has strayed into our compound. She had to be confined in bed for a month, suffering from shock and physical pain. The cow is still out there, and no one is feeling guilty.

I know of a motorcyclist who hit a buffalo lying in the middle of the road. He was thrown off right in the direction of an oncoming car. His death roused the villagers to impose some controls on the roving cows and buffaloes. But now it is back to how it was previously. One death should be more than enough. Cows and buffaloes don’t belong on our roads.

My mother died of old age five years after the incident. What is painful is that she treated the incident with the cow as something natural. Having cows and buffaloes roaming all over the place is the accepted thing. Perhaps if we still had our herd of buffaloes, we would be like all the other inconsiderate owners.

There are already obvious reasons why we should be doing something about stray animals. For one their stinky shits are more than enough to turn tourists off. They disrupt traffic and they damage vegetation.

There is a Malay proverb that says that it is easier to take care of buffaloes, than taking care of people. Or is it the other way round?