A Richland Park man who was raising a flock of sheep as part of his rehabilitation from an injury he suffered overseas was left distraught after all six of them were killed.
And, one week later, one of the three goats that he had also been raising died, of suspected poisoning.
The person who killed the sheep took the carcasses and left behind the entrails of the four adult sheep, two of which were pregnant.
Left behind were the carcasses of the two 6-month-old lambs with their necks slashed.
Morton Parsons told iWitness News that he suspects that the animals were killed because they had wandered into another villager’s cabbage patch.
He said that on April 10, the villager told him that lambs were going into her place and had mashed down some of the cabbages.
“When I go, there was only two cabbages — they were little — that mash,” Parsons said, adding that he told the villager that he was sorry and would try to ensure that the animals do not go back into her field.
He said he went to the area where he pastures the animals, took them home and tied them in his backyard.
The following morning, when Parsons went for the sheep to “tie them out”, they were gone.
“So, I went about looking for the sheep everywhere. I couldn’t find them. I went to the Mesopotamia Police Station. I walked all the way to Hopewell and back to Richard Park at 5:30 in the evening,” said Parsons, who is recovering from a torn ligament in his leg.
He said someone later called him, saying they had found the area where the sheep had been killed.
“When I went, I met all the belly of the sheep, and even the young ones, their necks were [slashed] and just dropped on the ground.
“They take the big ones — they empty the belly and just take the meat and the small ones, they will just remain right there.”
Parsons told iWitness News that two of the sheep were four months pregnant and expected to give birth over the next month or so.
The carcasses of two lambs born in October and no longer suckling were taken, while the carcasses of the two that were born in February were left where they were killed.
“They were big lambs because I also used to buy general purpose and feed them, so they were growing real, real fast.”
Then on Thursday, Parsons’s goat, which had two kids, died about one day after it had begun to vomit.
He had given the animal molasses and sugar water to treat the suspected poisoning, but this was of no use.
Parsons said he has since locked the 2-month-old kids into his brother’s pen, having treated them for any poison they might have been exposed to.
He speculated that the death of the animals was linked to the cabbage incident, noting that none of the sheep or goats belonging to other neighbours were killed.
“My brother has a lot of goats in the yard, down in the garden. None of them was missing. And then there’s a neighbour who has a few ram goats just across the street, none of his own were missing. There’s also a neighbour next to me, none of his were missing. So, I definitely know it was a revenge from the cabbage,” Parsons said.
He further noted that when he apologised to the person whose cabbage the lambs allegedly damaged, the farmer did not respond.
“Even when, when I tried to draw attention, call her name and said, I will try my best for the sheep not to come back into her land, she never said nothing. She didn’t even answer.”
He said it was the first time the sheep were entering the villagers’ farm.
“If she had said she wanted to be paid for the cabbage, I would have done that. She didn’t even say nothing more than when I went and asked her to show me the damage, she’s asking me if I don’t see.”
Parsons said that the police have said that they would investigate the development.
He said that the sheep were important to him as they forced him to leave his house as he is still recovering from an injury.
“I was working in the Cayman Islands and I fell off a building and pulled the ligaments in my legs. So, I came home and because I couldn’t walk that much, I decided to buy the sheep so that they would encourage or force me to move out of the house.
“In the evening, when I go for them, I sit down by the pasture and just watch them graze …
“It helped me to move out away from home because my leg, even though it’s still hurt, knowing that I have to get up in the morning and go and tie them out, that would just push me out of bed.”
Parsons acknowledged that some people would say he should control his animals so that they do not damage other farmers’ crops.”
He, however, said that the sheep are tethered, adding, “And it’s just the first time the sheep walking into that place because the place was pasture. It’s just a few weeks ago they dig down the place and plant dasheen there.”
He said he did not ask the villagers about the death and disappearance of the sheep.
“As long as the police are doing their investigation, I have nothing to say to her,” Parsons told iWitness News, adding that he visited the Central Police Station in Kingstown on Thursday, and a senior police officer told him that the case had been reassigned to another investigator.
He said it was not the first time that he had lost sheep
“Even when I was in the Cayman Islands, I leave some sheep for a guy and they stole all. Another time, I have some more animals, dogs came and kill them. But I mean, this set of sheep, it really, really hurt. I don’t know; it’s just my feeling.”
Landless farmers have always been a chronic plague in SVG begging for undeserved sympathy when their animals destroy other people’s crops.
That’s the only thing you can talk ….I done see you don’t have no common sense at all…. I really wish was your sheep them so you will know how it feel put yourself in his shoe Jah jah see people like alyo dey That’s why violence go never stop but God don’t sleep king so u will blessed more than them who wanna see you fall👏💯✅️
People like you have no respect for other people’s hard won private property so you curse them when they speak out about protecting their right to protect their livelihood.