Dear Editor,
Unbranded and unmarked cows, with calves and young cows roam the road day and night. If any of them should damage someone’s vehicle, who will compensate them? The people whose vehicles are damaged have paid a licence to drive on the road, but since these animals don’t have any brands or earmarks, no one will claim them and so no one will pay for the repairs of the vehicle.
Even if you carry the animal which has caused the damage to the police station no one will claim it and the police get to keep the carcass.
The owner of the vehicle should sell the carcass to the butcher to cover the expense of repairing his vehicle if there is no brand. If these animals are impounded the state should sell then and jail anyone who claims them.
The law says all calves should be branded or marked within three months, and when cows are impounded the police have to enter the brand of every animal brands in the station book.
Cattles have to be kept in a well-fenced ranch, and cows kept for milking should graze and be locked up in a well-fenced pen. Horses are the same; they have no brands and in case of accidents the carcass cannot be sold or carried to the police station. It is left to decompose on the road if no one claims it.
Horses which are impounded should be sold by the state.
The law says all fillies should be branded and marked within three months. If horses are impounded and anyone claims them they should be charged and put before the court. Horses should be kept in a well-fenced paddock and not allowed to stray on the road.
Sheep and goats should also be branded and marked within three months; they are branded with a small brand with one single letter.
Today sheep and goats have no earmark or brand. Vehicles knock them down as a consequence of which their lights break up. If no one claims them and you carry them to the police station, they eat them.
A vehicle owner should sell the carcass to pay for his lights. The owners of sheep and goats should graze them in pastures and lock them up in pens, and not allow them to run on the road.
Pigs should be marked (they are not branded). Some weeks ago some pigs broke my fence and destroyed my yard, I went to the station and the sergeant said I could not kill them, I had to write the owner. The sergeant and the officer in charge of the station told me that if the owner doesn’t keep them out of my yard, write him a second time. For two weeks the pigs destroyed my whole yard. In colonial times the law said pigs should be destroyed when this happened. Pigs too should be well kept in pens.
Then there are dogs who destroy thousands of dollars worth of sheep and goats in my area. When you go to the owners they say it is not their dogs; they don’t have black and brown dogs, or it is stray dogs, etc.
A month ago two dogs came into my yard and killed 13 of my ducks. The owner said it was not his dogs; I lost thousands of dollars. Dogs should be kept chained or in a pen. They don’t have brands or earmarks. The law-makers of Guyana have to change the law concerning these animals.
Yours faithfully,
Rudolph Singh
