Already dealing with the loss of her farm after an apparent attack less than a month ago, Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice farmer Amaloon Bickram on Friday received news that ten of her cows were slaughtered and their heads, intestines and skins left behind.
Bickram says her losses amount to over $1M and what is worse is that it happened three weeks after her herb farm was destroyed. In that instance, she estimated her losses at $3M.
Her son, Harriram had gone to the backdam around 6 am yesterday to milk some of the cows when he made the shocking discovery.
The discarded parts from the animals, which included a 700-pound bull and a pregnant cow, were scattered all over the dam.
After the discovery, Harriram rode his motorcycle two miles out to inform his parents and his father made a report to the Fort Wellington Police Station. Officers later visited the scene and conducted investigations but they were still to arrest a suspect up to late Friday.
Residents recalled seeing a “wagon car and a pick-up going down the dam” but they are afraid to come forward.
According to reports, a few weeks ago nine cows belonging to another resident were also slaughtered in the backdam and the meat stolen. No one was arrested then too.
Bickram said she, her husband and son are frustrated because of the double blow they suffered within such a short time. She told this newspaper: “I don’t know what we must do for a living now.”
She said too that a few of the cows managed to run away to safety and she is thinking of selling them now.
Earlier this month, her family’s one-acre farm, where they grew eschallot and celery, was destroyed in an apparent attack. She said persons “sprayed” a poisonous substance and killed the plants that they had already started to reap from. It was her son who made the discovery then too. He had gone to water the plants when he noticed that they had started to wither.
When he returned home and told Bickram, she dismissed it, thinking that it was caused by too much sunlight.
But he became more concerned when he returned the following day and found that the plants had become “yellow.” They then made a report to the Fort Wellington Police Station.
Ranks subsequently visited and conducted tests and it was confirmed that the water from the nearby trench that was used on the plants was poisoned.
