Magnificent man

Virtues make humans different from beasts. But patches of darkness still lurk in this unique species. In areas ranging from sport and entertainment to food and pastime, practices blatantly brutal have long been rampant.

It's only recently that eating the brain of live monkeys from their gaped skulls has been strictly banned in a number of Southeast Asian countries.

The blood-splattered raw brain was a delicacy, and costly. Affluent tourists were their chief clients. They would use forks while eating the monkey brain, the animal seated in a special wooden table with its head popping out.

Swallowing chick embryos in the sticky yolk of eggs is still favourite among many people in different regions. Soup made of the nests of birds living in the mountains of a European country has been popular for centuries. Using trained roosters, blades fitted to their feet, in cockfight is an old tradition in many Asian countries.

Against this backdrop, the killing of male chicks, by crushing them to death mechanically and shredding, after they come out of the broiler chicken eggs does not seem appalling.

Male chicks are considered to be of no value. But thanks to a reliving of kindness to animals in poultry farm people in a European country, the practice is set to be over. Instead of culling or killing the fluffy male chicks, from now on they will be detected in the eggs in embryonic stage through a special device, and disposed of.

This is undoubtedly a proof of man's great virtue of kindness. Shakespeare has not failed to discover the heavenly virtues in man. He has thus called man a magnificent creature.

Faridur Reza

Indira Road, Dhaka