Rustlers steal and slaughter 15 cows from Corentyne farmers

Oct 25, 2012 News

…dump skins, heads in backlands
Several cattle farmers on the Corentyne are now $3M poorer after rustlers broke into their cattle farm and carted off 15 cows. They transported the cattle to a bushy area in the Nigg backlands (a village away) and slaughtered them, taking away the meat and leaving the heads, intestines and carcasses behind.
These disturbing events were related by Narine Sammy Permaul, yesterday. Permaul, who has been rearing cattle at a farm in Williamsburg, Corentyne, has been a farmer for over 20 years.
He and the others have over 200 head of cattle on their farm. They are all partners in the cattle rearing business. The result is that they are all suffering since they all pooled their resources some time ago and started up the cattle rearing business.
Permaul said that as he was about to open his pen early yesterday to proceed with milking his cows, he observed that 15 cows were missing and the bars were ajar.

The cattle farmers stand among the dumped remains of the cattle

“Them slaughtered and killed them and took away the meat and left the guts and heads”. Permaul believes that the cows were driven to the area by the men, but nobody around saw anything since the area is located in the backlands of the village, near the seaside.
A blue Canter truck was spotted, though, by some residents near the cattle farm at the time. Yesterday morning, a search party left the village and found the remains of the animals at the location, about one mile south of the public road.
“They used to thief one, one, but this is the first time they steal so much,” Permaul complained.
Among the stolen cattle, the farmers complained, were their “milking cows” and mating bulls. “We ain’t got no bulls now to serve them cows; we gotta look for something,” said Ghansham Ramlogan, another farmer. They estimated their losses at $3M.
“The cows had calves in their bellies and all that they killed and throw away”. My milking cow was giving over one-and a half gallons of milk,” he stated.
The farmers believe the meat was transported to the city, “because them meat this cannot sell in Berbice—they took them to the supermarkets. This bull weighed about 800 pounds, and three heifers weighed about 400 to 500 pounds, each,” said Permaul.
Permaul said that this is a major blow to him and his family. He took “pay- off” from the Albion Estate few years ago and used that money to buy cattle. “Me ain’t get milk, too, to give me customers and all two flock bulls they killed out.”
He is now asking for another flock bull from the Ministry of Agriculture and would appreciate some assistance.
The police have since launched an investigation and Region Six Chairman David Armogan has “promised to send the Crime Chief”.
“This is our daily bread and we want justice! We don’t want them to allow any carcass over the Berbice River Bridge. Them a kill them cows and take the meat to Georgetown and this is the result we getting”, said another irate farmer. “We want justice! The police should raid all the supermarkets and ensure the meats were stamped and inspected by sanitary and inspect where they got the meat from—they should do that all over Georgetown”, she said.
“It is Georgetown people coming and do this! Them man a come with gun and we cannot go with cutlasses and fight these men. The Agriculture Minister supposed to give these cow cattle men gun because these men depending on this for a living,” she stated.
“I was really appalled to see that kind of disaster happening to these poor farmers. Apparently, they said a Canter truck was in the area that does not belong in the village,” Armogan said.
“I called the Commander and Crime Chief and doing some checks to see what blue Canter”.
Armogan said that he has heard, too, that there was a similar incident at Rose Hall Town. “Somewhere along back of Rose Hall they found couple heads too”.