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Cattle owners reimbursed for wrongfully impounded animals

May 06, 2011 News

The Ministry of Home Affairs has reimbursed a few cattle owners whose animals were wrongly impounded by the ministry’s team of stray catchers.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee confirmed that the cattle owners were reimbursed, following complaints to his Ministry.
This was after the Ministry found that the stray catchers had acted in contravention with their mandate.
Reports reaching this newspaper stated that a few weeks ago, the cattle farmers, who hail from Industry on the East Coast of Demerara, were grazing their animals in a pasture when the stray catchers arrived and proceeded to herd the cattle together before taking them to the nearby police pound.
This caused anger among the cattle farmers who subsequently sought an audience with the Home Affairs Minister after paying the pound fee and retrieving their animals.
“I spoke with them and we have resolved the issue,” Rohee told this newspaper.
“Stray catchers are not authorised to pick up cows that are being attended to by their owners,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Rohee disclosed that investigators from his Ministry have unearthed several inconsistencies regarding allegations by an Enmore cattle farmer that his cows were stolen by the stray catching unit.
Vickram Balgobin, of Hope West, had reported that the stray catchers had stolen two of his cows during an official operation on the East Coast of Demerara.
On April 1st, 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 had 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 none of Balgobin’s animals were 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 at Eve Leary, but was referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs to lodge a complaint.
There he met with Coordinator of the Stray Catcher Programme, Ovid Glasgow, who made a record of his brand number and promised to investigate the matter.
“I don’t believe they want to give me back my cows. I believe they stole my animals and sell it out,” Balgobin had stated.
Commenting on the issue, the Home Affairs Minister said that he had personally investigated the matter and found “a lot of inconsistencies with the allegation.” He said that with the checks and balances that govern the stray catching operations, it is difficult and almost impossible for such incidents to occur.
“There would have to be a great deal of collusion,” Rohee said, adding that he has since dismissed the allegations.

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