Rufus Leakin
Guru of Folklore

A CAMBODIAN MAN SAYS HIS YOUNG GRANDSON HAS LIVED PARTLY ON MILK HE SUCKLES DIRECTLY FROM A COW SINCE THE BOY’S PARENTS LEFT THEIR RURAL VILLAGE IN SEARCH OF WORK.

Um Oeung says 20monthold Tha Sophat started suckling the cow in July after he saw a calf do the same.

Um Oeung told The Associated Press he pulled the boy away at first. He relented after his grandson protested loudly and the boy has suckled the com milk once or twice a day since then.

Tha Sophat has lived with his grandparents in Siem Reap province in northwest Cambodia since his parents moved to Thailand looking for work.

Um Oeung said the cow doesn’t mind the boy suckling but he is worried about his grandson’s health if he continues.

After I read this article, I immediately thought of Mowgli, the main character in the collection of Jungle Book stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. Kipling, who was born in India, spent the first six years of his childhood there.

After living in England for about ten years, he went back to work in India where, I assume, he got the idea for the stories about a small boy lost in the jungle and being brought up by a pack of wolves. All the fables use animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons.

The reality of a human child suckling from another animal conjures up all sorts of concerns. First of all, drinking cow’s milk is not all that unusual; most of us still do. It’s just drinking it “straight from the tap” that raises health issues.

Nowadays, milk gets processed, sterilized and homogenized before it’s consumed. However, back in the day, it was pretty much served fresh, right after being milked from the cow. So even though it’s no longer consumed that way today, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be; it’s no different– except for the added chemicals.

The second health concern involves the questionable sanitation of the cow’s teat, especially if calves are still using it. That might be like drinking after your dog (not counting how many times he may have just come from quenching his thirst in the toilet bowl).

As the bacteriaconscious individuals we’ve become lately, we try to eliminate as much contact with germs as possible, although our bodies are designed to combat most germs (which are a lot more omnipresent than you may think).

If Mr. Oeung’s grandson is not getting sick directly from taking his milk “warm,” then maybe all his builtin, antibiotic defenses are kicking in naturally and his body will grow up as big and strong as any other kid drinking milk. It’s just the process that’s different. Or as Bart Simpson would say, “Don’t have a cow, man.”