Cattle rustling threatens livelihood of Berbice farmers

Jan 15, 2018 News

– victims plead for help from police, Agriculture officials

Cattle rustling has become so rampant in Berbice that some farmers are on the brink of giving up their livelihood if losses continue.
Some frustrated farmers from Number 52-66 Village have since come forward with shocking figures of how much they’ve lost for the year 2017.
Worried that 2018 might be no different if authorities don’t step in, they argued that something must be soon.
So, how bad is it?
Lallbeharry Seetaram, of Number 57 Village, who has engaged in cattle farming for over 40 years, says that one day he would visit his ranch and see all of his cattle, and the following day “five to six heads ah cattle ah gone”.
“Previously me go around two in the afternoon and me get couple calf fuh brand, so me tell me son that we got to go and brand dem calf this. So when me go back the morning around eight, dem cow this ah run behind we horse because is horse man dem thief we calf, so when dem cow see the horse, dem ah run”.
“Last month meh lost six (calves) and yesterday again when me go back in the savannah me na see some of them. This thing is so rampant, every day you can’t go and report to the police and tell dem today me na see five and then tomorrow again you na see three”.
Another farmer of Number 64 Village, Sahadeo Narine, 37, who owns approximately forty heads of cattle, stated that for the month of December, cattle thieves managed to take away some forty heads of cattle from a farmer he works for. They however, got back twenty three heads of cattle.

Sahadeo Narine, farmer

Ramlaghan Singh, farmer

“Friday evening, I was taking care of my cattle when I see four men gathering up cows from other farmers. The Saturday morning now, I receive a phone call from another farmer that told me he see the same four men and they take like 60-65 heads of cattle to go at the Black Bush back-dam and four other men join them,” Narine recalled.
He later contacted the police.
Farmers’ Recommendations
Ramlaghan Singh, another farmer, told this publication that cattle rustling has been an age old issue that demands urgent intervention by the authorities. He is questioning, “Why is it that we don’t have the police involved or present when the cattle is killed? The law says the police have to give a certificate and the sanitary inspector before the cow is killed. They move the cattle in the night by truck loads to Georgetown, but the law is there and some way or the other, it is not properly implemented or monitored”.
The farmers said that they have called for a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture with a proposal to have a committee formed to monitor and deal with the issue. Over 12,000 acres of land stretch from Number 52-66 Villages with close to 200 farmers being affected by the cattle rustling.

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