The cow herders of Continental Park

Nov 19, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The incongruity and depravity of man, his asininity, arrogance and total disrespect for the law are aptly demonstrated every morning by a small band of seemingly aplomb, but brutish-looking cattle minders who take their flocks to graze in a highly residential area, where home owners have spent huge sums to improve and preserve the aesthetic of their properties, but where animals are allowed to freely roam and destroy, not only beautiful and healthy plants and manicured parapets and lawns, but the spirit of humanity and human dignity.
The quietude, beauty and serenity of this area is routinely broken early every day by a flock of cows, being driven into the area by a small group of perhaps guilty school drop-outs whose collective job, it seems, is to convert the contiguous East Bank Demerara areas of Continental Park, Republic Park and Nandy Park into a Georgie Pasture.
The green faecal deposits on the roadways, almost liquid in many instances and seemingly diarrheal but offensively odorous, in the early mornings and twilight hours is a major put-off and enough to drive one’s sanity down and blood pressure up.
And as if to add insult to injury, vehicles must stop to facilitate this gross act of illegality as the flock is herded through the streets where, it seems, it can claim right of way ahead of the area residents and vehicles.
People build homes in such areas so that they can enjoy the privacy and serenity of such places. But, I have been mistaken in my belief that all would have been well when I constructed my home there 10 years ago. Not with the strays that roam in the day and even in the nights. It’s as if the animals and those who own them have first claim to the land and us property owners are mere squatters.
Presumably in response to a bombardment of similar complaints from around the country, and after many precious lives have been lost on our roadways as a result of wandering animals, the authorities reacted by drastically increasing the fees for impounded stray cows. But, this seems not to have any effect on a situation running wild like the cows and their minders alike. At least not in the area where I live do the hefty pound fees seem to be working.
Drastic measures with legal approval must be employed to ensure the preservation of our communities from these roaming and marauding flocks as well as their mindless minders.
I recall at a community meeting about two years ago, and prior to the increases in pound fees, where it was disclosed a stray-catcher, on his way to the pound with stray cows caught in the said areas, had his flock forcefully taken away from him by the owner who also threatened him with violence.
At a most recent community meeting with the Chairman and Overseer from the Eccles- Ramsburg NDC, residents were told the police at the Providence Police Station were not instructed by their functional superiors to charge the increased pound fees. As recent as November 17, 2010, the NDC’s Overseer told me the same police are still awaiting the new pound tariff from their superiors. The police are behaving as though no increases were authorised by our parliamentary lawmakers.
Quite recently, a gate to
my residence was inadvertently left open and a flock of cows quickly entered and hastily and indiscriminately devoured several beautiful flowering plants which I diligently nurtured over the years. These strays retreated only after I chased them, but not before leaving their hoof prints and some of their miasmic waste on my manicured lawns.
Our recent community meeting was told the authorities allocated lands elsewhere for pasturage, to the very cow owners who all refused to move their seemingly increasing flocks citing the inconvenience it will cause them.
But it seems as if herding their cattle on private lands and public reserves in our area is not at all an inconvenience and nuisance to us who take pride and spend hard, cold cash in trying to beautify our community.
I have absolutely nothing against these dumb and innocent animals and my relationship with cows dates back to several years during my nurture and upbringing in De Hoop, Mahaica.
Then, we took pride in our heifers and bulls and paid obeisance to these animals which are sacred to my Hindu religious beliefs. We never allowed them to roam and destroy.
We never allowed them to be a nuisance to others lest we would have endured the wrath of our angry parents.
For very foolish economic reasons, the PNC government under Forbes Burnham promoted suburban and in some instances, urban, cattle rearing as part of the Feed, Clothes and House (FCH) ourselves drive in the 1970’s. Although still a boy, then, I vividly recall that failed ‘economic’ drive which has left us with cattle and the accompanying stench in our cities and towns.
To some extent, this type of activity has become imbued in the economic and cultural dynamics in some sections of our cities, towns and suburbs.
It has been there for many years and what were once countryside villages have now been converted to suburban areas as internal migration caused townships to grow and outward boundaries expanded.
One can still find cattle and other animals being reared in bottom-houses and backyards in Kitty, Campbellville, Bel Air, Liliendaal, Ruimveldt and Eccles, the latter being the source of the cattle nuisance in my community.
As a people, we have over the years turned a ‘blind eye’ to cattle rearing in these areas but times and the dynamics have changed and there must be strict zoning enforcement if we are to truly embrace modernity and promote this great land of ours we call home.
Unlike the old days when we allowed urban and suburban cattle rearing and we even promoted, as a policy, this very activity, our country has moved several steps in the direction of modernization where such activities must no longer be tolerated. Our laws must be revised to outlaw such activities in our cities, towns and residential areas.
I recall some years ago the US State Department issuing a travel advisory warning its citizens to beware of stray animals on our roads whenever they visit.
At a time when we take pride in the number of visitors coming to visit our country, can we continue to allow the stray animal menace to continue? Can we forget Amerindian mother Mary Sandy who lost her life on the Providence Public Road because of stray cows?
Stray animals pose a serious, growing national problem which must be dealt with at the highest political and legal level.
Cows and other such animals must be put to pasturage. We must enforce existing laws and enact new ones to deal with this menace. Animals roaming our highways, streets, villages, towns and city must no longer be tolerated.
The time to act is now.
Mahadeo Panchu

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