Fetal attraction

Some people’s penchant for animals is unexplainable.

When an American child ran away from his Louisiana home on 31 May, he was immediately reported to the police as missing.

Alert cops were able to quickly find the young boy whose identity was not divulged by the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office (SMPSO) for privacy.

The SMPSO’s post on its Facebook page only mentioned that the unharmed boy was carrying a backpack with an unusual content that diverted attention away from him.

According to the post, a rooster was inside and they did not know why. The chicken, which turned out to be a hen, was given to the Patterson Animal Control while waiting for its owner to claim it.

In Sabah, Malaysia, members of the Dusun Tatana, the largest ethnic group in the northern Borneo region, reportedly consume an indigenous health drink to treat ailments.

The drink contained in a big glass jar is a liquid concoction that preserves exotic animal fetuses and sold in a local store until the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) banned it.

SWD director Augustine Tuuga said the ban stemmed from the agency’s findings that the fetuses in the drink belonged to protected species such as pangolin, mouse deers, monkeys and snakes, The Star reports.

Such endangered animals are also smuggled out of Sabah by the hundreds or thousands and sold to traffickers or medicinal dealers who used its body parts as ingredients for their healing products patronized by traditional medicine users.

WJG @tribunephl_wjg