Rat-catching is a bonus for impoverished farmers
Posted on 04/26/2002 12:50:38 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
Rat-catching is a bonus for impoverished farmers
Vietnamese peasants in the Mekong Delta have found a way to profit from the rats that are overrunning their paddy fields - exporting the rodents for the dinner table. Demand ranges from southern Vietnam to neighbouring Cambodia, the Ho Chi Minh City daily Tuoi Tre (Youth) reported on Friday.
Rat meat is a favourite at weddings
The province of Bac Lieu alone is reported to supply more than 100 tonnes a day to the two countries' dinner tables.
In a region where farm labour pays as little as $1 a day, rat-catchers are making between 30 and 40 cents a kilo from about 50 specialist distributors.
In the single province of Bac Lieu there are now estimated to be as many as 2,000 full-time rat catchers.
Eating their predators
But environmentalists have pointed out that the reason the farmers are battling with so many rodents in the first place is due to the increasingly exotic tastes they are pandering to.
They say that adventurous diners have already munched their way through much of the snake population which used to keep the rats at bay.
Indeed the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai, has banned the consumption or export of the rats' natural predators - snakes and cats.
Hundreds of hectares of the country's rice have been destroyed by rats.
COMMIE-LEFTIST #1: The Vietnamese economy under socialism is so bad, the people are reduced to eating rats! How on earth are we going to spin that?
COMMIE-LEFTIST #2: You twit! No one in a capitalist country knows what a rat tastes like, so we'll just pretend that it's a rare delicacy . . . .
They probably wouldn't have this problem if they had left the cats alone!
Baldrick: Right, how about a nice meal, while you chew it over? Blackadder: [suspicious] What's on the menu? Baldrick: Rat. [shows him a big black rat] Saute or fricassee. Blackadder: [peers at the rat] Oh, the agony of choice. Saute involves...? Baldrick: Well, you take the freshly shaved rat, and you marinade it in a puddle for a while. Blackadder: Hmm, for how long? Baldrick: Until it's drowned. Then you stretch it out under a hot light bulb, then you get within dashing distance of the latrine, and then you scoff it right down. Blackadder: So that's sauteing, and fricasseeing? Baldrick: Exactly the same, just a slightly bigger rat. Blackadder: Well, call me Old Mr. Un-adventurous but I think I'll give it a miss this once.
saw some rats like that- rat rats, not white rats- they were very sociable & frinedly, had been hand raised- the knew the gal who raised them by sight, and would get excited when she walked toward there enclosure. Said they were just like dogs.
Seemed a lot nicer than most chihuahuas I've had the misfortune to meet...
Rats, DemocRATs and commies.... The whole pack.
Though Vietnam is still a beautiful country.
To eat a rat is not a sin. ;^)
The Petco in Ho Chi Min City is an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.