The story of a cow which sustained broken legs after being hit by a motor vehicle in Spanish Town, and which suffered by the side of the road for more than a week before being euthanised by veterinary authorities, raises serious concerns.

Firstly, the long delay in putting the badly injured animal out of its misery is unfortunate. It doesn’t speak well for Jamaica’s image.

Locals, some of whom provided water and feed for the distressed animal over a period of days, say they made efforts to inform the relevant authorities to no avail. We also hear that the veterinary services of the Ministry of Agriculture only heard about the matter on Tuesday, a day before the animal was put down.

Some may consider it a minor matter, given Jamaica’s many pressing problems. However, animal welfare is important — embraced in our laws under the Cruelty to Animals Act, which first came into being in 1904.

Also, as any tourism industry insider can testify, there have been cases of visitors turning their backs on Jamaica because of visual evidence — such as road kills indifferently left to decompose — that animals, not least dogs, are frequently not cared for and protected from harm.

For sure, proper care and protection should mean that animals are adequately prevented from strolling about on our highways and byways endangering themselves and, very importantly, motorists and pedestrians.

The threat to human life and property cannot be overstressed. For as long as any of us can recall, stray animals on our roads have led to deaths and injuries to people, as well as severe damage to vehicles and other property.

Also, as farmers across Jamaica know from first-hand experience, hungry cows, goats, etc, on the loose, can destroy crops in an extraordinarily short period of time.

Indeed, in 2019, persistent damage by stray cattle to sugar cane crops was cited by rum company J Wray & Nephew Limited for closing the Holland Estate, adjacent to world-famous Holland Bamboo in St Elizabeth.

Scores of farmers who subsequently took over the estate on lease arrangements soon found themselves similarly imperilled by marauding cattle.

All of the above explains the widespread use of animal pounds decades ago, with stray animals being routinely captured and impounded, pending reclamation by their owners at a cost.

For all sorts of reasons, including maintenance costs, that system eroded over time to the point where animal pounds are now very few and far between.

In 2023, a pound operation contracted by the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation at Myersville in south-eastern St Elizabeth collapsed after less than two years. Allegations of inefficiency and inappropriate conduct at the pound and counter allegations of violent threats and intimidation targeting those operators apparently helped to trigger the project’s demise.

Against that backdrop, we are encouraged by reports that another animal pound operator contracted last year by the St Elizabeth municipality has had more success in efficiently combating strays.

We are inclined to suspect that other local authorities will be paying close attention to the latest Myersville project with a view to the way forward.

It won’t be easy. As Government Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth South Eastern Mr Frank Witter told this newspaper in 2023: “To catch the cow is very difficult, and then there is the fear factor in today’s Jamaica…”