Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves says his government is considering buying all the cattle on Union Island, in light of the situation there following the impact of Hurricane Beryl on July 1.
“… because of the special circumstances which exist in Union with the hurricane, I’ve asked Saboto [Caesar] the minister [of agriculture]’, and in a consultation with farmers and fishers for the budget on Friday morning, I reiterated it.
“… The state should go, buy them, buy all of them, all the cattle. Charter a boat. Bring them up. Those which we can sell to butchers, we sell to butchers, those which we give to farmers, we give to farmers and take them off Union Island.”
Gonsalves made the point as he commented on the issue of cattle roaming freely in communities in St. Vincent, posing a threat to people and property.
He said that in Union Island, most of the cattle are sold to butchers, adding that residents of the Southern Grenadines consume the least beef in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“They’d eat goat, they eat fish, they eat lobster, they eat conch,” the prime minister said.
He said that when the government was planting trees in the village in Canouan, another southern Grenadine island, it brought all the sheep and goats and brought them to St. Vincent and did something similar to what he was advocating be done in Union Island.
“The cattle, people would get the money. But on St. Vincent, there are no such special circumstances as we have in Union and the people who have their animals and let them go, know that they should not do it and they will only stop doing it when you kill one or two of them,” Gonsalves said.
He said that in some cases there might be disputation in Union Island about the ownership of the cattle.
“… but that, in a few cases, ought not to deter us from buying them and bringing them up,” the prime minister said.