Stray animals menace Francistown
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday January 31, 2020 15:04
The stray animals, dogs, donkeys and cattle pose various threats to people in the form of car accidents and diseases like rabies in the case of dog bites.
Dubbed the “City of all things precious,” the stray animals have the potential to lower the already dim lights of a Francistown still reeling under a plethora of problems that were compounded by the closure of mines.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the city leaders are up in arms with the owners of animals and are proposing that stern measures should be taken against the owners of these animals to curtail the problem.
The Mayor, Godisang Radisigo acknowledged that there was a serious problem of stray animals in the city.
What pains Radisigo the most is that the situation is compounded by the fact that penalties that the municipality levies on owners of the animals are very low while the costs of taking care of the impounded animals-mostly cattle and donkeys-are very high.
A worried Radisigo said: “We spend a lot of money to feed these stray animals at our kraals while their owners pay less to reclaim them. Going forward, I think it would be prudent for the council to reduce the amount of time the animals spend under our care in order to compel their owners to take good care of their livestock. If we do that, the owners would know that if they don’t claim their animals within a short period, the council would sell them through a public auction sale to recover the costs of taking care of the animals”.
The stray animals are mostly from villages near Francistown, Radisigo said, pose serious challenges that should be addressed with immediate effect.
“As the city’s leadership, we are surprised about this situation because villages near the city recently received good rains and there is no excuse for the owners of these animals not to take their animals where they are supposed to be. However, this does not mean that we condone the owners of these animals to leave them to look for food and water in the city whenever there is a drought. The animals should stay where they are supposed to be no matter the circumstances. Period,” Radisigo said matter-of-factly. The city’s number one citizen decried that if punitive measures are not taken against the owners of these animals, their stay in the city may bring trouble, which the public may live to regret.
“These animals are a health hazard because they overturn dustbins in the city at various locations when foraging for food. Also, imagine a stray dog breeding puppies that are not vaccinated somewhere in the city. The dogs may end up biting people and infecting them with rabies. The stray dogs are sometimes hit by cars and die in public areas. They end up rotting in public spaces and pollute the environment,” said Radisigo.
He added that the animals might scare away potential investors who may be interested in investing in the city.
“Some foreign investors are very choosy about where they want to invest. They may think twice about investing in Francistown if they see these animals roaming in the city centre. In short, these stray animals are a real eyesore,” said Radisigo.
Although poor rainfall that some scientists believe is caused by the phenomenon of climate change might be a contributing factor for the animals to be found in the city, the government’s ban on exporting donkey products to China might have played a role.
In 2017, statistics from the Francistown City Council (FCC) public relations unit showed that since the Chinese developed an appetite for donkey meat and its skin, the number of stray donkeys in Francistown decreased. Donkeys are in high demand in China where their skins are used to make natural medicine believed to be a sexual stimulant with anti-ageing properties.
The donkey’s hooves are said to contain gelatin, while the meat, consumed in many parts of China, is believed to be more nutritious than beef and is enjoyed in burgers and stews.