They shoot horses, don’t they?

Apr 02, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

At the memorial service for Mrs. Jagan on Monday evening at Freedom House, one of the speakers spoke of Mrs. Jagan’s love for the Georgetown seawall and he lamented the state that it is in. I know that place like the back of my hand. I go there everyday. I hardly miss a day.
Last week, I saw a robbery committed there and I drove behind the two robbers and saw where in Georgetown they finally turned into. I then drove to Kaieteur News and related to Dale Andrews what I saw because it was just last month that Dale, Rustom Seegopaul (of this newspaper) and me were in that depressed community examining police relation with the citizens. It was in that very area – Tiger Bay – that the robbers went.
I will return to the state of the Georgetown sea wall but another eyesore in Georgetown is the misery of stray cows and horses.
Do you know goat is the most expensive of the curries – chicken, duck and mutton – in Guyana? If you go into a restaurant, make sure you are prepared to pay about nine hundred dollars for a plate of goat curry and rice. I live in a compound where a flock of goats roam the area eating up people’s plants. They poke their avaricious mouths through the fence and eat everything in sight.
Once I left my gate opened while I drove off. When I came back, there was goat dung all over the yard and my wonderfully landscaped garden had disappeared into the bellies of the goats.
There is a family in Cummings Lodge that owns these goats. They loose them in the morning, they come into the enclave where I live and eat up people’s plants. You can’t grow anything by your fence. So I told one of the residents that we should catch these plant-predators, take them to the abattoir, have them killed and let us share out the meat to the homeless people.
How can the owner have his animals mashing up people’s gardens? It is not right. So these goats go on a rampage and the owner gets no reprimand. Once there is no intervention, he will not be inclined to be more responsible with these Capricorn manifestations (incidentally, I am Capricorn).This is just a light reference to what stray animals (cows and horses) are doing on the highways. These nocturnal strays have killed many drivers in the past. And they continue to do so.
An American diplomat about six years ago wrote an angry letter to the press bitterly complaining about stray cows on the East Coast highway. Apparently he ran into a group of them. Nothing has happened since that complaint. The nocturnal rampage of cows on the highway where I live in Turkeyen is over-bearing. That is one dimension of the issue. The other is who owns them. The owners have to control these roamers. They are all over the highway — from Liliendaal right down to the Surinamese border. In many, many, poor Third World countries, you will see sheep, goats, cows, horses on the main roads, especially in the countryside.
Guyana is certainly not alone in this unpleasant process. But when cows and horses start claiming lives, it is time to bring in legislation to punish the owners. There is now legislation that allows the state to impound the strays. But still to be debated is the state’s attitude to the owners.
Take horses. Last week, a fine, dedicated cop that I know well was badly injured when his motor cycle collided with a horde of horses at 3 a.m. on the East Coast Demerara Highway.
So what does the state do with the owners? Wild horses and stray cows can roam the highways, create traffic confusion that results in death and these owners are not touched. If a dog owner can be charged for manslaughter when his animal ran out of the yard and mauled to death a security guard, why not cow and horse owners? I am suggesting that that particular individual be charged over the accident that left a policeman with many broken limbs.
Let’s return to the seawall. It is not only the wonderful attraction in Georgetown that has become an eye sore, there are two other places – the National Park and the Botanical Gardens. The state of all three is absolutely disgraceful.
A lecturer in the History Department at UG once wrote that at a meeting, a Minister exclaimed that it is better to spend money on a tractor rather than on things like heritage buildings. The story of misused power in Guyana goes on.

Latest News

They shoot horses, don’t they?

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| March, 17th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

GPF arrests Presidential Guards by 48 runs as cricket action gets...

Superbet supports One Guyana 3×3 Quest

FIDE Master Drayton outclasses strong competition...

Wiltshire, Chris dominoes tourney set for March

Houston Sec’, New Central, Saints sent packing

Charles’ all-round performance helps EBDCA U23...

Features/Columnists

Govt. to scrap children’s textbook that attacks former Toshao

If Guyana’s President Ali is the “Zelensky of the Caribbean”, who is the Putin?

Partner v. investor

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

They shoot horses, don’t they?

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| March, 17th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]