The killer cow (Photo: Chulthea, Koh Santepheap newspaper)Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian villager has finally solved how to avoid further trouble from his cow that allegedly caused six traffic deaths this year — he has butchered it.
"The man has butchered the cow and sold its meat so that it will stop causing him more problems in the future," Pin Doman, a police chief on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, said Tuesday.
He said Kop Ri, the owner, killed his cow on Sunday.
Police took the cow into custody after a 66-year-old motorcyclist last week crashed into the white, 1.5-meter (5-foot) tall animal, which was standing in the middle of a dark road. The man died from his injuries.
Relatives of the deceased man had retrieved the cow from the police station to insure its owner would pay them US$1,200 (€840) for the death of the motorcyclist.
But last Friday, the relatives returned the cow to its owner after giving up hope of getting any compensation, Pin Doman said.
He said they have also dropped their complaint against the cow's owner, who could have faced a six-month prison term under a new traffic law that holds people responsible for accidents caused by their animals.
Earlier this year, the same cow was responsible for another traffic accident that resulted in the deaths of five people and several injuries, when a truck veered off the road and crashed as its driver tried to avoid the animal.
"The man has butchered the cow and sold its meat so that it will stop causing him more problems in the future," Pin Doman, a police chief on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, said Tuesday.
He said Kop Ri, the owner, killed his cow on Sunday.
Police took the cow into custody after a 66-year-old motorcyclist last week crashed into the white, 1.5-meter (5-foot) tall animal, which was standing in the middle of a dark road. The man died from his injuries.
Relatives of the deceased man had retrieved the cow from the police station to insure its owner would pay them US$1,200 (€840) for the death of the motorcyclist.
But last Friday, the relatives returned the cow to its owner after giving up hope of getting any compensation, Pin Doman said.
He said they have also dropped their complaint against the cow's owner, who could have faced a six-month prison term under a new traffic law that holds people responsible for accidents caused by their animals.
Earlier this year, the same cow was responsible for another traffic accident that resulted in the deaths of five people and several injuries, when a truck veered off the road and crashed as its driver tried to avoid the animal.
25 comments:
How come Cambodia is full of bad luck?, even a cow killed people. The whole country is full of murderers and the cow is trying to get in on the action. I wish we can butcher the murderers(cpp) just like the cow to stop them from killing anymore people.
This is not solving the problem but suppressing it. In the Cambodian folk story Ah Chey or Thminh Chey, when his master asked him to find the cause of the fire that had destroyed a house A Chey brought out a stove to show his master that it was the culprit. Our forestry officials at one time probably believed that sawmills were responsible for (illegal) logging, so they destroyed them by fire when they found them in the forests. The Khmer Rouge believed that money was corrupting, so they abolish it. Recently, our prime minister had problably thought that houses and other buildings were the culprit in the filling up of a lake near Phnom Penh when he sent excavators to demolish them to the ground. In the old days, our leader thought that US dollars were corrupting his officials and rejected US aid altogether to address the issue of corruption in the utilisation of that aid.
We need to think of better ways to address problems. Cannot that villager build a fence to prevent his cow from getting to the road?
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
It is not as easy as it looks, Dr. Lao. It depend on how big of the property the cow owner have. If the property is too small, then fencing in the animal is not healthy for them. Often the animal will feel depress and catch all sort of deseases ... . I think the problem could have been from the motorcycle lighting or the driver was intoxicated and overspeeding,... . Thus, more investigation is needed here in order to solve the problem down to its root.
lao mong hay- you're wrong! our leaders at least realized that the u.s. dollars came with strings attached. boy, were they right!
the u.s. only bombed cambodia back to the stone ages, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and setting up the country for pol pot's takeover.
your good friend uncle sam just wanted to use your beloved cambodia to fight a proxy war. we're just like ants to them. they don't care about you, me or any non-white race.
stop spreading western lies and propaganda in cambodia. you're destroying what the cambodian people have worked so hard to achieve after year zero.
if i'm not mistaken, you and the your fellow pro-american cohorts were not even in the country during the khmer rouge.
you're not qualified to dictate what's best for our people. so, it's better that you stay out of cambodia and not be heard from again. we don't need you.
And don't forget, killing an innocent sacred animal wrongfully is a sin (big time). Stop bringing evil from the west, please!
Continued from 7:39: Oh and if I were you, I will beg for white cow for its forgiveness, or else don't look for any pleasant life next time around. Do you know what I mean?
Dr. Lao Mong Hay's comments reflect all the truth and they are the best examples for people to learn from its mistake and do not repeat it. only stupid people who who try not to value Dr. Lao's comments.
Okay, if we are going to fence in animals, maybe the best thing is to get the community and government to designate a huge area for it. That way it won't effect their freedom so much and we don't have to worry about them spreading diseases or parasites.
Yeah right, you only say that because Dr. Lao is educate in the West.
Ok! Ok! We have a good exemple let butcher the Killer so the country will be save!
I don't understand, 8:52. Can you help me out?
Anyhow, we should be very carefully with cows because they work very hard for us plowing our field and save us thousands of dollars worth of diesel for tractors, not to mention keeping our environment clean as well ... . T
Oh, and for those who like to know why I suspect the motorcycle lighting is the cause of the accident, that is because it is a white cow. We don't need much light to see it as opossed to a brown cow.
As for over-speeding, that is a more likely case because typical motorcycle accident with animal will usually only cause minor injury such as bruises or broken arm or bone ... but over-speeding accident will cause fatality.
I do agree with Dr. Lao comment. It is obviously not the answer to what happened. The owner of the cow should be responsible for the accident. He should serve jail term as he neglect the warning by the local authority. This is not the first accident. He should keep the cow away from the street. It is really a silly solution to kill the cow.
I disagree with Dr. Lao comments!
To allow animal to kill Cambodian people and to get away with it will only make Cambodian people lower than animal! Hey! If you want to see Cambodian people lower than animal that is fine by me but that is you! And not me!
In this situation I don't blame the animals for standing in the middle of the road because animal doesn't use reasoning like human! The animal use instinct! Now it is a fact that when you shine a bright light onto the animal face and it would just stand there and get all confuse and it doesn’t know where to go! For those people to expect an animal to get out the way is just very uneducated of themselves! Now do I blame these uneducated people? Of course not because all knowledge needs to be taught to help people understand the situation and how to deal with it!
It is very important to understand that when things happen and people must take steps and take a way any opportunities so that the problem will not happen again!
For example, if two little children use sticks to fight each other and don't you want to take away the sticks and then separate them so that they can't fight each other or use the damn sticks?
The same go with the drug dealers and the police always take away the drugs...take away the opportunity so that things won't happen again! Criminals go around rob people with gun and take away the damn gun! The same go with all the damn corruption in Cambodia and why not pass the damn anti-corruption law and prosecute those corrupted people under corruption law?
I don't get it, 11:50. Let me get this strait. You shine a bright light on the animal, and they refused to move, so you ran the animal over at full speed and kill yourself, and that is not your fault because no one taught you how to handle the situation? Is that what are you telling us?
To 12:05AM!
That is right and that is what I am telling you! Now if the damn animal is already standing in the middle of the road and here the damn motorcycle coming with the headlight on and blind the damn animal with the headlight and do you think the animals will move? Do you think the damn animal know how to reason like human?
The fact is the motorcyclists should use his high beam on very dark road which should help him spot the damn animals at least 500 feet away to avoid any accident!
It is no wonder the traffic law and the traffic education are so urgently needed!
The animal use instinct and get that straight in your head!
Okay, but let's focus on this case specifically, what do you think happened?
The way I see it is either he didn't see the animal because we was intoxicated -- I mean how can you missed a 600kg white animal -- or he felt to sleep, then wammo, or he's going to fast and intoxicated and unable to maneuver his motorcycle.
Dr. Lao is correct. The cow's owner should have tied down or watch over his cow instead of blaming the poor animal for causing an accident. Careless owner should be blamed for leaving cow roaming at night.
Do you think dirt poor Cambodian farmers can afford to build fences?
There are countless animals in Cambodia not just cow!
Dirt poor farmers know how to take care of their livestocks better than you think. Most of the farmers tie down their cows under their houses at night and even sleep close by to guard against thieves because their livelihood depend on these cows. Only the careless or lazy owner let loose a cow at night. You must be a city dweller who knows nothing about a poor farmer's life.
Well, it depend on whether the area is populate or not. if the area is not populate everyone know each other, so you don't have to pay attention to the cow that much, but yes, usually the owner round them up and bring them close to the house before sunset.
I wouldn't want them under the house. That is quite messy to have to clean after them everyday, not to mention you have to have some food for them to go through the night....
This is exactly how "legal system" works in Kampuchea. When something is going wrong that created by human, blame the animal, beat up the children, and wife. In time of war, politicians would put the blame on the innocent people - used them as a shield or slaughtered them. Perfect example, is Sihanouk.
In the case mentioned in the article, Ranarith would be the best qualify counsel representing for the defendant, the "dead cow".
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Law professor my azz!
Dr Lao is correct, most of us in many time wrongly diagnose the real problem, no only in the formal work even sometimes in our life. We didn't gather sufficient information so did the wrong analises and led to the wrong decisions. most of the time we did not look deeply at the realy issue so made a wrong judgement. Change the thinking style and value the model of those sucessful people.
No, we were not like that. We were set back to Year Zero in our culture revolution, remember? So now we have to catch up to year 2007 again.
What I have observed now in Cambodia is a lawless country.people do not accept law to protect innocent humans lives and animals lives.The cpp authority seems doesn't want law in Cambodia so that they can abuse people,animals any time they want.
For my personal opinion it has nothing wrong to the cow,only these people have the problem.Don't forget one proverb"don't whip the cow-should sharp the plowblade.
100% I agree with Dr.LAO MONG HAY's comment for preventing from happening again in the future and thank you for your contribution to Cambodia.
Arun
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