It is difficult not to scoff at Montego Bay Deputy Mayor Dwight Crawford’s recent promise to take on the issue of stray cattle roaming Fairview Office Park, leaving behind pungent mounds of dung that had to be power-washed away.

In an article published in this newspaper on April 22, Mr Crawford said he had launched a probe to identify owners of the cattle and would have his “people go down there and see them!”

The tough-talking councillor for the Spring Garden Division then took it one step further, saying he would personally pay cattle owners a visit as, “not only is it a danger and a nuisance in dealing with the waste matter, but it is also a hazard”.

“It is inconsiderate,” he said, “of someone to think that it is OK to just have their livestock roaming all around the place like that.”

Mr Crawford is right. No one can successfully argue that cattle roaming residential and commercial areas is ideal. Owners ought to properly secure their animals. Apart from the filth left behind, they pose a clear and present danger to motorists as they amble towards their next meal.

However, Mr Crawford’s bluster is exposed for the ineffectual posturing that it is, as it soon becomes clear that he is all but powerless in the face of the bovine invasion.

His recent threats to have strays impounded ring as hollow as they did when he made them in 2023, because everyone knows there is no animal pound in St James.

Mr Crawford tells us efforts are still under way to identify individuals willing to operate such a facility.

Let us be clear: St James is not the only parish perennially plagued by unsecured cattle in search of greener grass. In May 2024, as strays were blamed for a number of fatal traffic crashes in Westmoreland, Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Danree Delancy announced grand plans that would provide relief not just for his parish but for all of western Jamaica. He said then that he had spoken with Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon and a pound would be set up in St James with other parishes partnering on the venture, working out their roles and responsibilities as they went along.

There has been very little publicly said of that idea since then; but there is no functional pound which fits that description.

We are not unaware of the challenges that come with establishing an animal pound. In addition to the daunting task of finding suitable land on which to house large numbers of varying types of animals, there is also the fact that chasing and securing them can be a risky endeavour.

The danger comes in the form of not just the animals, but also their owners who often vociferously object to their property being confiscated.

Years ago, after catchers were threatened into inaction, an animal pound located in Frome, Westmoreland, was eventually closed. The municipal corporation has not forgotten the sting of having to bear the cost of maintaining an empty facility.

This lands us to where we are today: Cattle competing with drivers and creating a lingering stink in a heavily used commercial area of Montego Bay.

We hope Deputy Mayor Crawford will prove us wrong, and that he and his peers in municipal corporations across western Jamaica will find the resources and the will to establish and efficiently maintain an animal pound.

Time to back up bluster with action.