Dear Editor,
Action to curb the stray cattle nuisance within my district in Region 2 which stretches from Pomeroon to Supenaam is urgently necessary with the enactment of legislation for a significant increase in pound fees to serve as a deterrent to the owners of the animals. The current fee of one thousand dollars is negligible and it should be upped to as much as ten thousand dollars to bring some relief to the unbearable predicament not only facing me but many other farmers here as well.
Stray cattle regularly cause extensive damage to my rice cultivation which requires much financing to get a proper yield on some twenty-three acres of open land located near the Onderneeming Sand Pit road.
Be it night or day, the plot of land in one block becomes like a grazing ground for cows whose owners just loose their cattle to roam wildly about the place with no concern for the suffering caused to others.
Many a time, I have had to pay men to assist me in catching the animals with a lasso − a task not easy at all. The majority of these animals usually get away and even when caught and impounded, the same situation recurs because of the negligible pound fee which means nothing to the owners.
Some of the animals although being so big and old are not branded, which makes it all the more difficult to identify the owners in the event of litigation to seek compensation.
Presently two such animals still remain unclaimed in the Suddie police station compound, but should the owners turn up to redeem them, prosecution should follow as provided by law for failing to brand same within a prescribed time after birth and for having no brand.
Very often, these animals are branded right in the station compound, but for reasons best known to the police, the owners do not face prosecution, only to abuse the leniency extended to them.
Yours faithfully,
Kenrick Boyce
