SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — With residents of this parish blaming stray animals for everything from traffic mishaps to unwelcome foraging in farmers’ fields and eating clothing hung out to dry, one locally elected official is calling for an animal pound to be established, even it means it is run by the private sector.

For Councillor Ian Myles (People’s National Party, Little London) stray dogs and goats appear to be the biggest problem.

“These animals have been wreaking havoc on the lives of a lot of persons within various communities in western Westmoreland. We have seen fatalities as a result of these animals, the loss of motor vehicles. I am more fearful for the bikers who traverse these roads at night because these stray animals basically sleep on the road during the night,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“The most dangerous part of it is that it’s creating a lot of accidents, so persons have to be forking out huge sums of money to mend broken limbs in the hospital. We have had a couple fatal accidents as a result of these animals,” Myles said.

He also spoke of the assault the animals have waged on farmers’ fields and their penchant for gulping down water residents collect for their own use.

“There’s no potable water in these areas… so persons who have drums as catchment to hold their water, these persons are seeing the animals moving in and drinking out the water,” he said.

The councillor has proposed that an animal pound that once existed in the parish be reopened.

“I’m asking the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) to look seriously into reinstituting the pound or, if not, go in partnership with other parishes. Or, if needs be, privatise the pound so that persons can start putting these animals under control. There was one in St Elizabeth so I called on the council to make that link with the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation to see if they would take on this venture,” Myles said.

“The residents are pleading and have been asking for something to be done and I am asking the WMC on their behalf now to take a stand,” he added.

For Little London resident Fabian Lewis, the stray dogs have just become too much.

“They’re like pests, trust me. They’re all around… they don’t have any owners and they create a lot of havoc in people yard. If the yard nuh fence up or there is no gate then they just barge in and eat up people clothes offa dem line, eat up people soap and all different type a something,” Lewis told the Observer.

“Sometimes when mi guh work a night time mi lick inna dem. Mi get bumper issues and corner light lick out and dem something deh and mi haffi fix it up miself cause you don’t know whose them be,” he added.

Lewis said because of this, he and other motorists have to be on guard when they travel at night.

“Cars have problem with them and bikes have problem with them at night because they’re mostly on the road at night. Sometimes they just lie down in the road too and it’s hard to see them at night and sometimes [they’re] around corners. So you have to try to remember every time you going round a corner, just in case you might go round there and see them,” he complained.

Stanley Jones, who has a small farm in Savanna-la-Mar, also complained about the stray dogs.

“A bare trouble dem give mi. Sometimes dem just walk through the ‘grung’ pon mi crop dem and one or two time mi ketch dem a try eat off the leaf dem. Dis cyaah go on cause mi sure a nuh just my crops dem trouble. Dem need fi do something bout dem now man. All inna the town dem deh, everywhere when you a walk bout,” Jones told the Observer.

One woman, who identified herself as Shelly from Smithfield, said chickens, which residents call ‘common fowl’ were one of her main sources of distress.

“They come in my yard and eat up my plants that I have outside. Sometimes if I leave my back door open and unattended, they come in my house and leave droppings on the floor. The noise is another thing. I can barely get some good rest because they walk around the house and just make noise night and day,” she complained.