Animal Hazards Ahead

Jul 18, 2011 Editorial

The US advisory on animal hazards on our roads rings true. There are accidents caused by these animals every day somewhere in our country. Unfortunately, they are only reported in the media when deaths or horrendous damage to vehicles occur, so very few of us appreciate the enormity of the problem.
It takes untold millions of dollars to repair the damaged vehicles – which are mostly not reimbursed by insurance – but the shaken up or injured passengers have to always deal with their trauma by themselves. Can we ever estimate the loss our country suffers as a result of accidents caused by straying animals?
We acknowledge that we are a country that is developing from an essentially rural economy that encouraged the rearing of livestock to augment the meagre wages of our citizens who were locked into low paying sugar or rice cultivation.
But we have to deal with the practical problems that manifest themselves if we are to sustain our development. But even back in the colonial days, animals on the roads were recognized as a menace and there were very strict laws to deal with them.
Every Police Station on the coastland had a “pound” in which animals caught straying were kept until their owners retrieved them. Those owners then had to pay a fine or have their animals auctioned off.
Today our roads have at least a thousand times the number of vehicles we had back then. We have lost our railways that transported a large percentage of our passengers and bulk freight – these now have to be conveyed in mini-buses and hauled in gargantuan road bound trucks.
Our roads have practically all been upgraded and therefore facilitate those vehicles driving at a fairly faster clip. When these factors are added to the same number of animals sauntering down our roads, collisions are literally guaranteed and it’s a tribute to the much-maligned drivers of Guyana that more deaths have not been recorded.
Guyanese vehicle drivers have to be au fait with the psychologies of goats (they turn back when one honks), sheep (don’t turn back – they are sheep), cows (placidly amble along) and horses (may rear up onto windscreens if startled) etc.
So what do we do? In these days of skyrocketing food prices we cannot very well ban coastlanders from rearing livestock. We have to begin by looking at the laws on the books and update them along with their enforcement mechanisms.
For one, the fines for animals caught on our roadways are far too low – we have not caught up with the inflation rates since the sixties. The fines must be sufficiently onerous to be a serious deterrent to those owners who blithely allow their animals to take excursions across our roads.
Then there is the matter of the pounds that were located in the police compounds: these must all be upgraded at once. Finally, there is the vexed issue of who will round up all those straying animals from our highways and byways. Our Police Force is overstretched as it is with pursuing roving bands of bandits and insurrectionary forces.
The Traffic Department, under which bailiwick the responsibility probably falls most squarely, is going to be kept busy with its new radar guns for the foreseeable future as they socialize our drivers into the psychology of safe speeds and basic road courtesy – such as dimming their “brights” to oncoming traffic.
We suggest that we turn over the collaring of wayward animals caught on our roadways to independent, civilian, contracted “animal catchers”. Animal bounty hunters, if you will.
They would coordinate their activities with probably one liaison officer posted at each station on the coast. They would also be granted permission to impound any cattle found without an owner’s brand emblazoned on their flanks.
This latter practice has been allowed to lapse, making it very difficult to identify owners of delinquent animals. The “animal catchers” would be compensated out of the levied fines or auction sales as the case may be.

Latest News

Animal Hazards Ahead

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| March, 31st, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Rotary Club of New Amsterdam Childhood Obesity Prevention Inter...

Demerara beat Berbice by 6 wickets after Apple...

DCB Under19 Inter-Association Cricket Tournament...

Tagore Memorial Secondary School benefits from...

Hurricanes knock Eagles off course despite...

Peter’s Hall, Herstelling ‘A’ advance to...

Features/Columnists

A coalition of shared disgrace

The U.S. “Joining” the Commonwealth: an unreasonable expectation

Better contract management, info flows

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Animal Hazards Ahead

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| March, 31st, 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 […]