MYSTERIOUS COW DEATH

MYSTERIOUS COW DEATH

JUNE 15, 2005, THE STAR REPORTS:

It was a grim sight. Scattered within a 100m radius at a palm oil estate near here were carcasses of 21 cows that had orange-coloured froth around their mouths.

Cowherd K. Nadeson, 48, said 15 of the cows that were found dead on Sunday afternoon were his.

With tears rolling down his cheeks, he said his 17-year-old son Poobalan had released the cows for grazing at about 4pm before he went for tea with some friends at a nearby stall.

“Half an hour later, my son returned to the site, which is about 250m from the tea stall, and was shocked to find the animals dead. He looked around and found that 15 of the cows were ours. Six others belonged to two other cowherds,” Nadeson said, adding that the cattle were two to eight years old and were worth about RM30,000.

The other two cowherds, Paneer Selvam Selan, 34, and V. Sivakumar, 36, were both also shocked over the unexplained death of the cows.

“It is sad that this has happened, as the cows were our livelihood,” said Nadeson, adding that he sold cows’ milk to support his wife and five children as well as his 65-year-old mother and a brother.

My humblest empathy to these poor souls and the poor cows.