A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW
Deacon San Nguyen
VIETNAMESE RICE, AMERICAN LAW
Since America was founded, every year, this country has welcomed thousands of people belonged to all ethnics from every corner of the world. Although they were from different origins, immigrants carried the same wish: becoming U.S. citizens. After being accepted as new settlers, people created communities, some were very big and crowded. To avoid conflicts between communities, US Law was established based on the fairness, correctness, and justice. Everyone had to obey the Law. On the other hand, Law protects the citizens from all kinds of discrimination or unfairness. Therefore, US Law was a very complex system that consisted of millions of issues and matters. However, in general, there are four issues that US Law cared the most of all: Children – Women – Animals – Men. Children in this country were protected at the highest standard of all protections. Thus, all people who had tendency to teach their children in hard ways must be careful. The tough parents might be in jails if they beat their children hard. Animal protection was another important issue. In Oklahoma, Bill 21 signed in 1685 had clearly stated that “whoever beats, wound domestic animals or leave them unfed will be charged as a criminal and will be sentenced in jail not over 5 years, or temporarily detained not over 1 year, or fined not over $500.00.”
Unfortunately, many Vietnamese people who are ignorant about the basic rules that followed had been charged wrongly.
Ignoring to Report Dead Animals
Not long ago, a Vietnamese man built a small pond in his yard to feed some fish. Everyday, he watched his fish swimming happily. One day, when he was not at home, a small terrier from his neighborhood sneaked into his yard, jumped into the pond to catch the fish, and drowned. The man came home and surprisingly saw the dead dog in his pool. Because he did not know much about the law, the man took the dead dog out and put in a trash can. When the waste collector found the dead body of the dog, he reported to police who arrested the man and charged him as a criminal. The bail bond was set at $500.00. The woman who had the dog charged him $500.00, too. Totally, he had to pay $1,000.00 without having a lawyer to defend for him. If he hired a lawyer, the lawyer fee would not be under $1.000.00! Getting very angry with this case, the man destroyed his pond.
Eating Dog Meat
Dog meat is a cheap and popular food in Asia. In Seoul, South Korea, the Dog Meat Street is very crowded with happy eaters. In Vietnam, dog meat is displayed at big and crowded streets, too. Being accustomed with eating dog meat, a number of Vietnamese people still missed dog meat very much. Therefore, some guys dared to buy dogs at dog shops, secretly killed them and ate them.
I had a close friend living in the same state. One day, I and my whole family visited him. At dinner, we were served with several kinds of meat. They were very delicious, though. After the meal, we were invited to have a tour around my friend’s big house. When passing the freezer right at the time my friend’s wife opened it, we were very surprised to see a big dog head and bags of dog meat in it. All of us staggered for a while. Had we caught by police at that time, all of us would be in big problem although we were not the dog killer.
Answering our question about how my friend could do that, he smiled and told us that he had a friend who was the owner of a chicken farm. The farmer raised a pack of Mexican dogs as the farm guards and also, as sources of meat for him when he needed it.
Waiting for few minutes to calm ourselves, we explained for our friend to understand that eating those companion animals would be charged seriously because it violated both animal testing right and sanitary issues. We suggested that our friend had to stop eating dog immediately and never thought about it again.
The dog-eating issue seemed not rare in America. Another friend in California told us a story about his neighbor who had a dog that was killed in a car accident. Instead of burying it, the man had the dog barbequed and ate it. A witness reported to police. The man who ate his dead dog was arrested and detained in jail for long.
