By Telesha Ramnarine

LIONEL Campbell and his entire family are mourning the loss of their three cows which thieves carried off and slaughtered. Two of the cows were pregnant and just about to give birth. It was early in November when Mr. Campbell’s wife returned home from work and noticed that the cows, which they bought and cared for over four years, were missing.
She hurried to ask her son if he was watching them, but he dozed off, and in the nick of time, the thieves made good their escape with the cows. The family, who resides at Seawall Road, Thomas Lands, believes that the crooks timed their movements.

The bandits had to have been observing the cows over time, Mrs. Campbell told the Guyana Chronicle, and would have had to go there with a vehicle to move the cows. The cows, valued over $1M, were huge; one was expected to give birth at the end of November, while another was to deliver around January.

The family searched relentlessly for the animals until they found the heads of the cows at the seawall in the vicinity of the Sparendaam Police Station, East Coast Demerara. No one was willing to offer any information; even the vendors on the seawall whom the family thinks would have seen something.

Mr. Campbell told this publication on Saturday that he asked police at the Alberttown Police Station to view cameras in the area, but was given vague promises. “It was just a push around,” he expressed. The family also made reports at Eve Leary and the Sparendaam Police Station, but police would offer no help.

“When we saw the three heads and the calves on the ground, we went to Sparendaam Police Station, and all they tell us is that they will inform the others. That’s all the satisfaction they give. They didn’t come and say man, let’s go see what took place. We were so frustrated at how the police handled the matter. They could have gone to see the cow heads, look at the cameras, or ask some of the sellers on the seawall,” Mr. Campbell opined.

“We feel terribly hurt because we mined those three cows from small to what they are, even to the big one that they kill had a calf to drop; it was real sad to see the calf on the ground. The big one had over 300 pounds if you kill it, dead weight. And you giving a butcher to sell back at $200 a pound, that’s $600,000, much more with a calf inside,” he added.

Mr. Campbell said the family cherished the cows, and that they were part of their family. “They became part of us and to see them like that was hurtful. We really had cherished them a lot. And as poor people, we tried to develop our lives by rearing these animals.”
Mrs. Campbell said she still cannot believe how people could have been so cruel to the cows. The manner in which they died is most painful, she said.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Campbell took ill following the incident, and their son didn’t attend school for two days. The family is still trying to come to grips with this reality.