CROFT’S HILL: Dogs kill 24 goats on one night
November 25, 2019Some farmers at Arthur Seat district in Croft’s Hill, Clarendon, are counting their losses after a single dog attack last month left 24 goats dead.
The goats were in close proximity to each other when the dogs, suspected to be from a neighbouring community in Clarendon called Top Hill, went on a deadly rampage by night.
One farmer lost 13 goats in the attack, residents told The Beacon.
Elijah Benjamin is still trying to come to terms with the fact that four of his goats – comprising one ram and three does – were killed.
He said the loss is devastating, considering that he has four children to support in school – two at the secondary level, one in sixth form, and the other attending a skills training centre.
“We lost goats before, but never at this magnitude,” Benjamin lamented. He could have sold the four goats for more than $100,000.
The farmer said it was painful to see how the dogs bit one mother goat, which could be sold for at least $40,000.
“The dog dem tek off the two ears and jus bite up the whole of the face. As a farmer who has children going to school, it is really devastating – really really devastating,” Benjamin further posited.
He opined that the goats were not tied far from the farmers’ homes on the night of the attack.
“Normally you have your goat a chain from you – or a mile away on your farm. You don’t expect dog to come and eat your goat. Remember you’re not putting the goat out for two or three miles away from your house; it is near,” Benjamin added.
He, in the meantime, appealed for dog owners to control their animals.
“Get rid of your dog or keep your dog really really close,” Benjamin advised, adding: “If you can’t afford a dog or maintain a dog or keep the dog in a chain, nuh worry with dog.”
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