Dear Editor,
I am a resident of Continental Park, Plantation Peter’s Hall on the East Bank of Demerara, who would like to take this opportunity on behalf of all the residents of the area to vent through the letters column of your newspaper, the complete disgust and frustration of everyone residing there as it relates to the unlawful grazing of cattle in the neighbourhood.
When we purchased our properties in the Continental Park area, there were certain stipulated conditions on the agreement of sale that we are expected to maintain, like not being able to operate a mechanic shop there, not being able to rear livestock, and not being able to subdivide or sublet the properties to multiple families, etc; conditions, we understand, would be necessary to maintain a successful residential investment and which we strictly adhere to.
However, for more than two years now, there is an urban cattle rancher, who, incidentally, does not reside in the area, but who herds a huge kind of cattle into the area early each morning, and leaves them to graze in this residential neighbourhood until late at night.
In support of the country’s green agenda, most residents of the area have taken the time and expended their financial resources to landscape their properties including the front beyond their gates and fences. They have planted special grass, special flowering plants, and nice shady trees. They have been painstakingly pruning them, watering them and fertilising them.
To everyone’s chagrin, however, these cows are allowed to roam freely all day long and well into the night, posing a traffic hazard, preventing the children of the neighbourhood from riding their bicycles, and from going to their neighbour’s house to play with their friends due to the fear of being attacked and trampled upon.
These cows defecate and urinate everywhere. They munch on the grass, eat all of the foliage that they can find, and create large holes in the ground, particularly when the ground is soft due to the rain. They rub themselves on objects such as letter boxes, parked cars, and plants, damaging them in the process.
Reports of this nuisance to the Eccles/Ramsburg Neighbourhood Democratic Council are of little use as these appeals fall on deaf ears and nothing is done about it. The cows are not impounded, the owner is not charged for these violations nor is he made to stop this daily grazing exercise.
Most egregious of all, is the fact that when the herder is spoken to about the inconvenience being encountered by the residents as a result of the grazing of the cows, he becomes abusive and belligerent.
I would like to plead with those in authority to do something to help us out of this mess.
Yours faithfully,
Kishore Das
