I have lived in many small agricultural communities in SA, and almost all of them have a town rule that folks MUST contain their animals and if they get onto the road and GET HIT, it is the OWNERS fault. This "killing" a pig or chicken (thank God for ME it has never been a cow!) has happened to me many times, and I only paid the first time before I knew how things work..

We pay for our ignorance!!! Other cultures are not as "disorganized" as it appears to us from outside.... give them a little credit...... :confused1:

An amazing story from our last trip gives a solution on how to keep cows out of the road:

Around the Block 2007 |

SURPRISED ME !!!

Toby (charapa) Around the Block 2007 |

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We actually replaced the hooter for a much louder one in Cairo after a few too many near misses and it worked a charm (sometimes scared the bejesus out of people) in letting the other road users know you were approaching.

There is a possibility that large amounts of money (relitavely in Ethiopia) could actually encorage farmers to have thier animals "accidentaly" wonder onto the roads? Not a nice thought.
I do believe in trying to make things "right", but it must be kept in perspective or else there is danger of doing more harm than good.
How much could a native buy a cow for in Ethiopia? Only then can one say if this amount was right or wrong.

There are a few western states in the USA that have "Open Range". If you hit a cow or a horse its youre fault and you pay for it.

Not so surprising to me, cows are a form of currency in Ethiopia and are required for many things, including gifting to the brides family when getting married. For many people, they operate in pretty much a cash less society, so if you want to get married, you better have a way of having or coming up with some cows. (Hence the popularity of raiding parties in the south, we didn't realize the common occurrence of such until we ran into a police patrol who pointed out that there was a party of 150 men with AK47's 40 km further up the road that we were riding on. But that's another story.)

The importance of cattle can't be over stated, in the south I had an interesting conversation with a government agricultural official who pointed out that there is a large problem with overgrazing. They insist on owning as many cows as possible and the land base can't support the number of cattle, grazing to the point where they are underfed and stop producing milk. As a result, the owner's family continues to suffer from malnourishment. Very strange from our perspective, but it makes sense to them. Every cow has great value, whether it is thin or not.

The same official warned us that if we did hit a cow, that we could expect and angry mob. One school of thought was to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. He also warned us that in certain areas if a cow was hit and killed and the driver drove off, certain tribes would simply block the road and stop the next vehicle and demand payment from them. When dealing with angry mobs, the logic of the situation and rules of right of way etc. don't hold much sway. And even right of way is mostly a concept for the industrialized world, from a farmers perspective the road is just a smooth trail, the onus is on you to avoid the wandering beasts and people. If an accident happens, the onus is likely on the "perceived rich" westerner who has enough money to actually own a vehicle to prove that he is not at fault at all (difficult) and then to negotiate like heck to make sure that he doesn't get fleeced more than is appropriate.

Quick Calculation:

Average cow weight in Ethiopia = 160kg
Average market price per kg = 16 Eth Birr/kg
160 x 16 = 2560 Birr
Approximate exchange rate 8.3Birr = 1$
2560 / 8.3 = $308

so cash raised from bikers = $250
cash raised from meat = $308
Total = $558
Hmmmmm.....

Check the price of cattle in Ireland, the UK or pretty much anywhere else.

So, having paid for the animal, they should have loaded the cow onto the vehicles they are travelling with - if just bikes, then butcher the animal there and then and take the best cuts - still a reasonable deal with the local population I would say.
Negotiation is universal.

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Dave

Above you are forgetting the price to slaughter and transport the cow.


When I was taking Spanish lessons in Ecuador I told my hippy Spanish teacher about how my Australian friend ran into a cow. She said "well did he pay for it?¨

I had to restrain myself. A cow could so easily kill a motorcyclist and the idea of rewarding a farmer for being lazy is crazy. I know many of the farmers do not have a lot of money, but there is no excuse for not staking each cow if you do not have the money to maintain your fences.

BTW: It is different if it truly was an accident. ie. the fence suddenly broke in one place.

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Most "farmers" in Ethiopia don't own any land so where should they put their fences?

Originally Posted by gatogato
I know many of the farmers do not have a lot of money, but there is no excuse for not staking each cow if you do not have the money to maintain your fences.


Do you mean 'STEAKING'? I'll 'butcher it for you!!!

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response edited and replaced...

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Let me rephrase that, depersonalise this.

Compared to Ethiopia's roadside farmers, its poorest producers, we are all brash, bourgeois bastards, an idle elite lucky enough to holiday for years, roam the world on our rich-men's rocking horses, and all able to lay two hundred and fifty bucks on a dead cow. Bend it, mend it. If you break something, you replace it. Kill a man's cow, buy him another. Them's the rules, no? Which is why I'm struggling to understand some of the responses and attitudes on this thread.

Suerte, Dan.

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Near the town of Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) I bought a goat for $10usd. The folks I was staying with assured me this was a fair price- and that goat was delicious! Did you know?: In Ethiopia, a man who owns 1000 or more goats gets to wear a crown. It's kind of a big deal to own so many goats in these parts. $250usd for a cow- and you didn't mention the age of said cow- seems pretty steep to me. H.

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Well it appears to me that we have beaten this dead cow issue about to the end, but thought I should add a farmers perspective. We run a couple of hundred head of cattle in western Washington State, USA. This is not open range and here is how it works if you hit and kill one of my cows. If it can be shown that we have poor fences (legally defined) we pay for the damage to your car or motorcycle and bury the cow. If on the other hand, if vandals cut the fences (has happened) or say a tree fell on the fences and the cows got out, you pay for my cow ($800 to $1500 unless I get greedy and claim it was a prise winning cow).

Everywhere you go is going to have a whole new set of rules/customs and I hate getting scammed as much as the next but paying was the right thing to do if it was normal to have livestock wandering the roads. I think he got by cheap at $250.

Wow, that's a great second post road hog. How much time have you spent outside the USA? Sweet dreams, H.

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