Businessman accuses resident of poisoning poultry, plants

Oct 12, 2009 News

– fears for family’s safety

Diamond New Scheme businessman, Ronald Prescott, says that he is being tormented by a female resident, whom he has accused of poisoning his poultry and plants.
Prescott, who lives in Eighth Street, Diamond, is convinced that the resident poisoned several ducks and chickens that he kept in his yard a few months ago.
Fishes that he kept in a partitioned trench outside his yard also died mysteriously, and Prescott believes that they were also poisoned by the same individual.
The aggrieved man, who earns part of his income from selling flower plants, and also raises fruit trees, believes that the suspect also sprayed a poisonous substance on a papaw tree near his parapet.
Kaieteur News was provided with documents which showed that two veterinary officers from the Ministry of Agriculture concluded that the Prescott’s poultry had ingested a pesticide.
Prescott alleged that before his troubles began, the resident was constantly borrowing his tools and asking him for plants.
According to him, he eventually stopped being so accommodating and this apparently incurred the woman’s wrath.
Prescott explained that he had used pieces of mesh to partition a section of the trench in front of his yard to rear fish.
He alleged that he came home one day in March, 2009, to find that all the fishes had died.
“I knew that it was she who had poisoned the fishes,” Prescott said, adding that a resident subsequently informed him that the woman was seen spraying the area.
Then in August last, Prescott said he came home to discover that four of his ducks had died. He said that all 27 of the large ducks he was rearing subsequently died within a few hours.
He explained that the pen was in an area in the yard that would have allowed the individual he suspected to poison the ducks’ drinking water.

Mr. Prescott examines his dying papaw plant, which he believes was deliberately sprayed with a poisonous substance

Again, Prescott said, he was informed that the suspect was seen spraying a pesticide near his property.
“I made a report at the (Golden Grove) Police Station and a policeman came and saw the (dead) ducks.
The policeman told me that he reared ducks and that the way they look made him believe that they were poisoned. He asked where the suspect was living and I showed him the house but no one was at home. He came back that night but from the time he saw the lady’s daughter he said ‘you ducks ain’t poison, they get cramp,” Prescott alleged.
Prescott then filed a complaint with the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to a document seen by Kaieteur News,
a veterinary officer said that examination of some of the poultry indicated that they had ingested “a toxic substance.”
But Prescott said that his problems continued after an incident in which the Neighbourhood Democratic Council had intervened.
“The next thing I see, I came home to find four hens, four guinea fowls, and two more ducks dead. I reported it to the police station and called the Ministry of Agriculture again, and they find that the fouls died from the same poison that killed the (first) ducks,” Prescott said.
A document by Ministry of Agriculture Veterinary Officer, Dr. Devon Dublin, stated that he had visited Prescott’s home on August 26 last.
After examining the dead birds, Dr Dublin stated that “when taking into consideration the circumstantial evidence, clinical signs and lesions encountered, the birds succumbed to poisoning with an organophosphorous compound usually used as a pesticide.”
Prescott said that this time around police ranks visited the woman’s home and seized a poisonous substance. He said that a report on the incident was sent to the office of the Director of Public prosecutions (DPP).
But the incidents have not stopped, Prescott claims.
About a week ago, he erected his fence higher to prevent a cock owned by the same resident from entering his yard and destroying his plants.
“The next day, one of my bearing papaw plants start withering up.”
Prescott says he fears that the woman may take her vendetta to another level that could have dire consequences on his family.
He has a tank with water for drinking purposes in his yard and his concern is that this might be poisoned too.
“We have to start wondering what next she will do. We fear that the lady will poison the drinking water because like she poisoning everything.’