Oranjestad, St. Eustatius- Councilman Koos Sneek has written a letter to the Executive Council with quite some questions about the issue of roaming animals on the island.

While the councilman states in his letter that he is quite happy to hear about the fact that the animal owners are deemed ‘cooperative’, he feels that a lot of questions needs answering. Sneek in his letter also refers to the ‘grace period’ that had been taken into account and wonders what the next steps of the Executive Council will be.

“After this grace period it was the intention that professional hunters were to shoot the animals. I understand that in the meantime this grace period has been extended until May this year”, according to Sneek in his letter.

Agreements

Sneek has several questions about the agreement signed between the Government and the animal owners. The Councilman wants to know -among others- with whom the agreements were signed, how many animal owners have signed and what is the legal status of such agreement. Sneek also wants to know if there are animal owners with goats in the Boven/Venus bay Area who have not signed and, if so how many.

Payments

Another area Sneek wants to be informed about is the payment to the animal owners for each pound of meat sold. “During the grace period animal owners are receiving $ 8.00 instead of the customary $ 6.00 per kilo for each goat they bring to the slaughterhouse. For a cow this is $ 6.00 instead of $ 4.00 and for a pig $ 7.00 instead of $ 5.00How much money in total has been paid out to animal owners thus far? Can I receive an overview per animal owner of the number of animals/kilos of meat turned in and the compensation received?”, are some of Sneek’s questions.

Removal

Sneek also wants to know of the Executive Council if it is true that animal owners have become less cooperative in the process, what the Council deems a realistic time frame for the completion of the project, how much money was spent on shooters/hunters and ammunition so far, and what the Executive Council plans to do with roaming animals in the national parks.