LTO Cambodia: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Friday, August 13, 2010

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because somebody broke its legs and tied it to the handlebars of a motorcycle on its way to market.

It is not an uncommon sight in Cambodia to see farm animals - chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs - being transported to market in the most cruel and inhumane manners. Live chickens and ducks tied to motorcycles in great feathered bouquets, hanging upside-down by their broken limbs, or crammed sardine-tight into caged trucks, their limbs broken to keep them from fleeing, bodily fluids draining from their gasping mouths as they slowly bake unprotected in the tropical sun. Pigs laid on their backs and strapped perpendicular across the seat of the motorcycle, head and ass ends hanging over the edge, each bump in the road slowly breaking its back, the pig squealing the whole way in terror and pain. Absolutely nothing is done to ease the discomfort of these animals - to cushion them, to hydrate them, to shield them from the elements - nothing.

All this is not done without reason. Refrigeration at the traditional markets, let alone refrigerated transport, is unknown in Cambodia. To get meat to the market fresh so that it is safe for human consumption, it must be delivered live and then butchered only hours, sometimes minutes before being sold as meat. And, for whatever reason, the humane treatment of animals does not seem to figure high (or perhaps even exist) on the list of Cambodian priorities. The only thought that seems to be given is to the ease and efficiency of handling and transport to the market, nothing else.

I have sometimes wondered which system is better, or worse, if either. The western way of factory farms where animals often lead dull, miserable lives trapped in barren little cages or crowded into warehouses from birth to death, but in the end are given a relatively humane, painless death. Or the Cambodian way, where almost every farm animal is free-range and leads a largely unrestrained outdoor life wandering the village and fields, but then suffers its last few days on this Earth in unfathomable horror and pain.

*Photo of motorcycle with chickens, Phnom Penh 08/10
*Photo of Butcher section of the Old Market (Phsar Chas) in Siem Reap, 04/10

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Cambodia

Cambodia is Srok Khmer, the 'Land of the Khmer,' the primary ethnic group in the area since at least the Neolithic and an Indian influenced civilization with origins near 2000 years old. Centered on the lower Mekong and tributaries the Khmer people have dominated the region for millennia. From 2nd century AD Khmer kingdoms rose and fell, culminating in unification and the 500 year reign of the Angkorian Empire, the builders of the temples of Angkor near Siem Reap. The Empire stretched from Burma to the ocean. But by the 1400s Cambodia fell to centuries of change and decline squeezed between the expanding Siam and Vietnam. Colonized and by the French in the 1860s, independence 90 years later in 1954, a brief post-colonial 'golden period' under Sihanouk, coup in 70, civil war, fall to the communist Khmer Rouge in 75, 3 years 8 months 20 days of madness, Vietnamese rescue in 1979, occupation, low level war and international sanctions in the 80s, the UN, ostensive democracy and an adventure party destination in the 90s and now mainstreaming, tourism, rapid development, rapacious capitalism and NGOs, missionaries and other international busybodies aplenty.

Southeast Asia

As the term implies, Southeast Asia encompasses the southeastern corner of the Asian continent, loosely speaking, the area between India, China and Australia. It is made up of two distinct regions: the mainland zone, a bulbous peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, bounded by China to the north and India to the west; and the insular (island) zone in the Pacific Ocean. The name 'Southeast Asia' is a comparatively recent invention, first coming into use into the 20th century and still a bit indefinite in definition. Mainland Southeast Asia is generally considered to include Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and peninsular Malaysia. The mainland is sometimes referred to as Indo-China though Indochina (Indochine) also designates the 19th/20th century French colonial conglomerate of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sitting south of the Tropic of Cancer, most of mainland Southeast Asia lies in the hot, humid tropics and sub-tropics with a climate dominated by a monsoon cycle which divides the year into two distinct seasons: a dry season and an extremely wet monsoon season. Much of the mainland is mountainous and thickly jungled, with large river systems and wide, low-lying, flood-prone plains, much of which is, in modern times, deforested and blanketed with geometrical rice paddies. Several major river valleys including the Mekong River, the Red, Ma and Ka rivers and the group of rivers draining to the Chao Praya Delta played host to the rise of early civilization in the area. The Mekong River is one of the world's greatest rivers, the seventh largest on the planet, and since pre-history has been closely associated with the land of the Khmer.