Government must outlaw the grazing of cattle on the side of roads

Dear Editor,

I refer to the letter by W.P. George captioned “The cow trespassing nuisance can only be dealt with when the law of branding is enforced” (07.12.02). Cow trespassing is not only a nuisance to society. Cows wandering on the road pose a serious danger to human lives and increase the cost of doing business.. Many people have lost their lives to accidents involving cattle. Motorists have had to dig into their pockets to pay for repair of vehicles and insurance companies needlessly have to pay for claims arising from cattle-related accidents. Farmers also lose produce when cattle invade their farms. Something has got to be done to keep cattle away from the main roads, private property, sugar cane and farms under cultivation.

Of the many countries in the Caribbean and Americas in which I have travelled, Guyana is the only country where cattle roam the streets. In fact, I was in Mexico last week. There were no cattle roaming in Mexico City. And I did not see any cattle in any of the other cities I visited over the years in Mexico or in Argentina or in Chile or in Brazil or in other countries in South America. There are also no cattle on the roads in Trinidad or Jamaica or in any of the other islands. Cattle were seen enclosed in pastures along the roads or in ranches as is also the case in the U.S and Canada. I remember once taking a Trini friend to Guyana for a visit. When he saw hundreds of cattle on the roads, he exclaimed: “My God, this is like India”. But even in India, efforts are made to keep the cattle away from the roads in the major cities.

The Government should outlaw the grazing of cattle along the sides of roads. But at the same time the government should make available pasture for cattle owners to graze their animals. Poor cattle owners need somewhere to graze their animals. When my family owned cows during the 1970s, my father grazed the cows into rice lands that were out of cultivation or my brothers and I used to take them to graze in abandoned rice fields. But there is limited unused private land now for cattle herders. And this explains why cows are seen wandering in neighbourhoods and on the roads. So government has to make available its own uncultivated land for cattle grazing. This would help to keep the animals off private property and posing a menace to human lives.

Yours faithfully,

Vishnu Bisram