‘Human carabao’ creates a stir in Cagayan barangay

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan — Here’s one for Ripley’s: A baby carabao whose features reportedly resemble that of a human, was born Monday night in the far-flung barangay of Cattaran in Solana town.

Tony Baggay, a neighbor of the family who owns the mother carabao, reported to the Solana police that "the animal has the look of a human because its head, eyes and ears are those of a human," but the mammal’s nose and body appear to be that of a carabao.

"Nu kalubam ti agong na kasla tao lattan ti itsura na (If you cover its nose, it really looks like a human)," Baggay said, adding that even the way it walks resembles that of a human.

According to him, the mother carabao was four months’ pregnant when it was bought by a certain Mr. Pablo from another barangay in Solana, some 40 kilometers from this province’s capital.

Barangay folk in Cattaran who "baptized" the calf as "Sharon," suspect that the mother carabao was "raped" by a human, resulting in the formation of a zygote made of the beast’s egg and the human’s sperm cell.

The STAR learned that Cattaran, one of the poorest barangays in Solana town, had the least number of marriages last year because according to a town official, "the men are afraid to marry because of poverty."

"Life there is too hard and harsh," the town official said in the Ilocano dialect.

Officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) here have refused to speculate how the "human carabao" came into being.

Meanwhile, Solana policemen have been tasked to provide security to the calf while waiting for DA personnel to examine it.

Senior Superintendent Rodrigo de Gracia, provincial police director, told The STAR that he and his men have seen the creature with their own eyes.

"Believe it or not, but we saw it. Its head looks like a human head," De Gracia said after he and his men went to Solana upon hearing of the fantastic story.

"Everything’s normal except the head. I didn’t believe it until I saw it," the police official said, adding that the four-day-old calf had no signs or traces of "sprouting" horns, unlike other normal, newly born ones.

Rudie Bueno, regional director of the Philippine Information Agency based here, rushed to Cattaran to see the animal for himself.

While the calf, indeed, has an "abnormal" head, Bueno said it looks like more of a donkey. — With Charlie Lagasca