Two gamecocks photographed alongside three men following a Sunday cockfighting bust were spared further indignity this week when a Myanmar news outlet made the humane move to preserve their anonymity by placing a bar over their eyes.
The burning shame and barnyard heckling the duo’s hens and chicks would no doubt have faced back home was averted by a quick-thinking Tachilek News Agency editor, who extended them a privilege Mandalay police had thoughtlessly reserved solely for the humans involved.
The decision to hide the roosters’ identities was an editorial one, according to a staff member at Tachilek who asked to remain anonymous.
“The editor made the decision,” the staff member told Coconuts Yangon over the phone.
The rag-tag collection of cocks and (alleged) criminals was first photographed by Pathein police officers after the three men were arrested for hosting an illegal cockfight in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region.
Other gambling paraphernalia seized include a phone, a rag, a bucket, and cash in multiple kyat denominations. No, we’re not entirely sure how the rag and bucket figure into all this.
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The three men are facing charges under section 12(a) of the Gambling Act, which carries a prison sentence up to six months or a 50,000 kyat fine ($32.77). The game birds, we assume, potentially face a stew pot.
Netizens weighed in with their own theories as to why Tachilek determined the two roosters’ identities needed to remain hidden from public view:
“Maybe those who figured out their dinner used to be part of a fight club would be dissuaded from finishing their chicken stew,” Vivian Wang commented.
“Around the world, only people in Myanmar will protect the dignity of a chicken. If he is known to be a criminal among this chicken friends then he will lead a hard life,” Zin Myo Lwin wrote.
And if a chicken’s dignity isn’t worth protecting, what is?
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