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By Mihar Dias May 2025
So it seems fried chicken in TTDI isn’t just for humans anymore.
Recently, Azrul Shah Mohd Isa, a restaurant owner in the area, shared a heartwarming tale about a regular customer who quietly buys 20 to 30 pieces of fried chicken a day — not for himself, not for his neighbours, not even for his mother-in-law, but for stray cats wandering the streets of TTDI and Sungai Penchala.
Cue the obligatory chorus of “Awww, humanity isn’t dead after all.” Social media exploded with praise. “Such a rich soul,” someone commented. https://newswav.com/A2505_W60Wiy?s=A_sQzGBvu&language=en
Another declared “This sambal hijau customer is generous, just like the owner too.” https://newswav.com/A2505_W60Wiy?s=A_sQzGBvu&language=en
And somewhere in the digital corner of the internet, a tear rolled down a cat video enthusiast’s cheek.
Now, don’t get me wrong — kindness to animals is a beautiful thing. Stray cats deserve love, and frankly, they’ve probably earned a fried drumstick or two dodging traffic and judgmental aunties with broomsticks. But one can’t help but ask the question no one dares to voice in the middle of a feel-good Facebook post:
Wouldn't it be better if those 30 pieces of fried chicken went to, I don’t know… hungry humans?
Malaysia isn’t exactly a hunger-free paradise. Walk a few blocks from that TTDI eatery and you’ll find someone rummaging through bins not because he’s looking for a meow-meow, but because it’s dinner time.
We live in a country where soup kitchens struggle for donations, old folks’ homes can barely make rent, and flood victims are still waiting for mattress replacements from a few monsoons ago. Yet here we are, celebrating a man whose charitable target is four-legged freeloaders who won’t even Instagram their appreciation.
It raises the awkward dilemma: does kindness still count if it’s spectacularly misplaced? Is charity charity when its recipients have fur?
Perhaps, in a way, this story says more about us than it does about the man with the plastic bags. We’ve become so starved for any semblance of human decency that even a nugget of compassion — however impractical — is treated like an oasis in a moral desert.
I salute the man’s heart. But maybe, just maybe, the next time he orders 30 pieces of ayam goreng, he could split the order: 15 for the cats, 15 for the homeless guy watching from across the street.
And if anyone’s offended by this suggestion, relax. You can always order the sambal hijau version for the humans.
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