Customs officers while clearing a ship at the Guyana National Shipping Corporation (GNSC) wharf at Port Georgetown yesterday afternoon discovered that an illegally imported horse was on board.
A release from DPI/GINA said that officials of the Guyana Livestock and Development Authority (GLDA) were notified and immediate action was taken.
The authority carried out preliminary investigations at the wharf on where the animal came from and found that the condition it was being kept in was not good.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the GLDA, Dr. Dwight Walrond in an invited comment told DPI/GINA that a few years ago, the Laws of Guyana declared that the importation of horses without the necessary requirements is illegal.
Hence the horse was impounded by the authority.
Dr. Walrond explained that, “Over the years, in 2013 and 2014 we had some incidences where we had a number of animals being imported from Trinidad illegally, because of that we would have basically … say it is now illegal to bring horses from Trinidad by boat or animal leaving Trinidad without being micro-chipped or reaching the requirements of Guyana meaning all the vaccinations and so on.”
The animal is now being kept at GLDA’s quarantine station at Timehri where veterinarians will carry out a number of tests to determine whether the animal’s health is up to requisite standards.
Thereafter, the horse will be handed over to the Guyana Police Force which will be taking the necessary action against the importer.
