Cattle farmer accuses stray catchers of stealing cows

Apr 21, 2011 News

Less than two months into its operation the Ministry of Home Affairs stray catchers programme is mired in controversy with an Enmore cattle farmer alleging larceny of his animals.
Vickram Balgobin, of Hope West, is convinced that the stray catchers stole two of his cows during an official operation on the East Coast of Demerara.
And despite several meetings with senior Ministry officials he is nowhere close to having any satisfaction.
On April 1, Balgobin a cattle farmer for more than 20 years was grazing his branded cattle near the Logwood Cemetery, when the stray catching crew arrived.
He told this newspaper that he saw when the men caught his animals and placed them into a truck before heading in an easterly direction.
Balgobin said that he expected that his animals would have been taken to the Cove and John Police Station to be impounded.
However this was not the case as checks there revealed that none of Balgobin’s animals was there.
The cattle farmer said that he subsequently checked all the police stations along the East Coast of Demerara to no avail. He even checked at pounds in the city with the same results.
Eventually, Balgobin went to Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, but was referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs to lodge a complaint.
There he met with Coordinator of the Stray Catchers Programme, Ovid Glasgow, who made a record of his brand number and promised to investigate the matter.
Under a revised law, cattle owners are required to pay a fee of $5,000 for the release of each impounded cow.
The cows are to be impounded at police stations countrywide where Government had carried out a massive rehabilitation of pounds.
“I don’t believe they want to give me back my cows. I believe they stole my animals and sell it out,” said Balgobin, adding that he had met twice with Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee without success.
Efforts by this newspaper to contact Rohee proved futile.
While many persons, especially motorists and urban cash crop farmers, welcome the initiative, the Stray Catchers Programme has come in for some sharp criticisms from cattle rearers.
In another case, a cattle farmer in the Industry Crown Dam area had alleged that her cattle was chased by the stray catchers from their usual grazing ground unto the road so that they could be impounded.
She lamented that she was forced to pay for the release of her animals.

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Cattle farmer accuses stray catchers of stealing cows

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