Watch out for boar meat!

Watch out for boar meat!

From Suara Karya

The mass media in Jakarta has contained news about the illegal sale of boar meat which is sold as beef, not in local government- owned markets but in other places. The marketing system of the meat vendors is reportedly modern enough, namely by using box trucks just like those used in the sale of beef.

As a person who has lived in Bengkulu long enough, I am of the opinion that consuming boar meet can be harmful to one's health. Besides, it is forbidden to Muslims.

Therefore the public should pay close attention to the recent appeal of the Jakarta Animal Husbandry Agency concerning the current marketing of boar meat which is sold as beef. There are indications that some of the boar meat has come from Bengkulu where hunting of boars has occurred for years because boars breed like mice -- their population in Bengkulu is estimated at between 15,000 to 20,000 -- and they are extremely harmful to the farmers and villagers in general. The boars damage or destroy rice-fields and eat roots and corn. They are locally called kaput and categorized as the number-one enemy of the local people of north and south Bengkulu.

It appears that in addition to exporting boar meat to Singapore, certain hunters have begun to supply the people of Jakarta with boar meat under the guise of beef, using certain modus operandi and covert techniques.

Good heavens!

VALERY E. SETIAWAN

Bengkulu