Some shed tears, others leisurely "stroking the tiger's whiskers"

(Baonghean) - The incident of hundreds of crocodiles escaping from the Quoc Viet Import Export Seafood Processing and Trading Company Limited is causing panic and disturbance for people in Ca Mau City, attracting public attention recently.

Information about people in Ca Mau City "encountering crocodiles on the street" always makes the newspapers hot: crocodiles appear in people's gardens, crocodiles enter pagodas (Buu Huong pagoda), crocodiles leisurely walk on the street... And the peak of the danger is that crocodiles "temporarily reside" in the fish pond of Kim Dong Primary School, Binh Dinh commune (Ca Mau city), causing more than 300 students of this school to have to take a day off from school (October 15, 2012) to carry out the capture of crocodiles. Fortunately, until today, with the active participation of the government and the high vigilance of the people, there has been no human damage caused by crocodiles.

However, Quoc Viet Import Export Seafood Processing and Trading Company Limited certainly suffered a significant economic loss: the cost of hiring capturers, ransom money for crocodiles... Not to mention the number of individuals that died or escaped because they could not be found, the effects on the reputation and brand of this company. And, there are still unpredictable dangers for the crocodiles that escaped but could not be found or captured. Thus, the economic and environmental losses are visible, so the tears (if any) of those who suffered losses due to crocodiles being released from their cages are real tears, not "crocodile tears" at all!

While the large number of escaped crocodiles has not been captured in sufficient numbers, the people of Ca Mau City are still worried because some people said they saw crocodiles swimming in the river, the capture force is using ducks to catch crocodiles but there are still no results, public opinion is stirred up by a series of articles reflecting that in Do Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district) people raise tigers like pigs. Articles about the story of people in Do Thanh commune innocently raising tigers in their homes to "increase production" were quickly published densely on online newspapers and electronic news sites.

Perhaps, anyone, even with a rich imagination like the author Thi Nai Am, who built the famous story about the hero Vo Tong, while drunk, single-handedly using drunken fists to kill a fierce tiger in Canh Duong mountain (novel Thuy Hu), probably could not imagine that there were ordinary people with weak limbs, no martial arts and no weapons, raising "king of the jungle" like raising pigs at home, and taking care of "Mr. Thirty" like taking care of a cat every day. And the story of "stroking the tiger's whiskers" here is a real story, a story as real as a joke! The farmers there had a very innocent and childish concept that raising tigers was only to increase production, to get rich. The thing they worried about most was that the newly bought tigers would get sick and die. The risk they feared most was that if the tigers got sick and died, they would lose money! As for other things, someone else "took care" of everything from A to Z. The hero Vo Tong dared to go through the mountain with fierce tigers because he was too drunk at that time. These people are not drunk, if drunk then they are only... drunk on money!

Just because of money, tiger breeders disregard the danger to their own lives and those of those around them. Fortunately, if one day there is a storm, the cage is damaged, or at some point the ferocious killing instinct arises and these tigers escape, who knows what will happen. But there is one thing that everyone knows, that is, tigers are definitely more dangerous than crocodiles. Yet, I don't understand why tiger breeders and villagers still "live with tigers". Now that the matter has come to light, the government and functional agencies from the central to local levels know and have taken action, but whether they can enter the tiger cage to catch the tiger or not is still a matter for us to wait (to catch a tiger, you have to enter the cave).

Thus, while crocodile farmers in the South are crying and laughing because their crocodiles have escaped from their cages, surprisingly, illegal tiger farmers in Nghe An are still leisurely "stroking the tiger's whiskers".

Ngo Kien