Long Trench People Mad About Cows

By Mellica McPherson

Residents of Long Trench are complaining about the number of unattended cows that roam the area. They claim that these cows enter their yards and wreak havoc.

Four Long Trench women told The Island Sun newspaper that cows walk into their yards and head straight to their clothes, pull them from the lines, and tramp on them. One resident said, “I have a big family, and that means that I usually have a lot of laundry, I don’t own a clothes-dryer and I can’t afford to go to the laundry and dry my clothes, I shouldn’t have to since God has blessed Tortola with so much sunshine. My husband and I don’t own cows so why should we fear the damages those animals make? This is my yard and I should be able to hang my clothes on my line without interference.”

According to residents the cows are attracted to the clothes line with freshly washed clothes. “Who said animals don’t have sense, you should see the way these cows go back and forth rubbing themselves against the clothes. They don’t stop until all of the clothes are dirty. They cause people to wash over and over again and that shouldn’t be. The sad thing is that they do it  day and night so there is no safe time to hang one’s clothes. This cow situation is menacing,”  one furious lady said.

The unattended cattle problem seems to be affecting most of Long Trench’ residents. One man feels as if the cows have something against him and commented, “these cows leave the road and come into my yard, walk onto my porch and mess it up, and from the refuse they leave I average that it must be more than ten culprits," he said this while shoveling.

Another Long Trench man told this newspaper that after the cows had eaten all of the potted plants he had on his porch on two occasions, he and a few other Long Trench residents went in search of the owners of the “criminal” cows. He said, “Long Trench is a community where everyone is related, we all know each other, so I was upset when one of the owners of the cows told me that they do not belong to him.  I know him, and I know those cows are his.”

Some Long Trench residents are threatening that if the situation isn’t looked into they will take matters into their own hands.

This is a matter that will generate further news reports.