ORANJESTAD- Residents who have complained for years about the level of damage caused by roaming animals will begin getting some relief from the start of this week. The shooting of roaming animals has been announced as starting from July 11, 2022 as efforts begin to enforce the laws governing the keeping of animals on Statia.  

The culling of the stray animals will start in the urban zone, mainly focusing on the cliffs, beginning with goats and cows in the initial stages. 

“As we all know roaming animals have been a problem for many years. They are a great danger. If we don’t intervene and enforce the laws we are literally destroying the country for our future generation”, Deputy Government Commissioner Claudia Toet revealed on this week’s Government Information Service radio programme, Shedding Light.   

Roaming

According to Statia Government -and disputed by some as highly exaggerated- there are an estimated 14,000 goats roaming free on the island, in addition to thousands of other livestock. “Over the years these animals have been causing untold damage to agriculture, the landscape and the environment as a whole. In addition to widespread erosion that threatens the coral reefs, there’s a high negative impact on marine and terrestrial biodiversity on the island which affects tourism and economic development. In addition, the roaming animals pose a risk to vehicular traffic and cause damage to private property”, according to a press release from the Public Entity St. Eustatius.   

“The damage is felt by the community in different aspects – from a financial perspective, people have had their gardens destroyed by roaming animals. Over the years we also see that the vegetation of Statia has been severely affected because the under-growing crops are not allowed to grow. We are very close to a tipping point,” said Anthony Reid, Director of Economy Nature and Infrastructure, who also spoke about the program on Government’s radio program Shedding Light.