BURI RAM: What are friends for if not to save a favourite young bull from the abattoir.
Malida Chatthaisong (left) and Nanthiya Rummaneerattanakul, a former classmate who engineered the campaign to save her friend's young bull from the . (Photo by Pikool Kaewhawong)
Friends who had known Malida Chatthaisong since they were in primary school together in Phutthaisong district have pooled their resources to save the life of the year-old ox she loves, which was destined for the slaughterhouse.
They raised enough money to buy Lui, who had been reluctantly sold to be butchered because Mrs Malida was desperate for money.
Mrs Malida, now 51, had groomed Lui since he was born a year ago, with never any thought of seeing him parted from her family. But with her father seriously ill with heart disease she had no option but to sell the animal for 24,000 baht last week to the slaughterhouse, so that she could pay for his treatment at Buri Ram Hospital.
But when her friends found out they acted quickly, raising the money between them and buying Lui back from the meatworks in the nick of time for 28,000 baht.
"I know that Mrs Malida loves this animal. So I asked her other friends to join hands with me and make merit by saving his life," said Nanthiya Rummaneerattanakul, a dentist at Nang Rong Hospital who was in the same class with her at school.
So, instead of ending up on diners' plates Lui the young bull now lives comfortably at Wat Khao Khok in Nang Rong, which agreed to take care of him.
