A growing public safety and health crisis has emerged in two Trinidad and Tobago communities, where dozens of unregulated stray cattle have overrun residential neighborhoods, prompting the local mayor to issue an urgent plea for intervention from national law enforcement.
Doodnath Mayrhoo, Mayor of Siparia and a long-time resident of one of the affected areas, confirmed this week that uncontrolled roaming cattle have completely disrupted daily life for residents of Ackbar Trace and St John’s Village in Fyzabad. The mayor, who has personally experienced the negative impacts of the stray animal problem, told local media that the Siparia Borough Corporation has received dozens of resident complaints about the issue—but the local government body lacks any legal mandate to remove stray animals from public and private land.
Mayrhoo explained that while community leaders have repeatedly raised the crisis with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) over the past year, little to no tangible action has been taken to resolve it. Last year, TTPS officers visited the affected neighborhoods and pledged to implement targeted measures to address the stray cattle, but months later, no changes have materialized. “It is not one, two, or three cows. It is about 40 of them walking the road and walking into people’s properties,” Mayrhoo stressed in an interview. “As I said, the Borough Corporation does not have the responsibility to deal with that matter.”
Local leaders were previously instructed by police to capture the cattle and transport them to the Oropouche Police Station for impounding, but the station lacks any dedicated holding facility for stray animals, leaving municipal officials with no path to act on their own. “We were told that we have to hold the animal and carry it to the Oropouche Police Station for it to be impounded, but there is no pound in the Oropouche station to impound any animal. So, there’s nothing I can do. My hands are tied,” the mayor added. Municipal enforcement officers have on multiple occasions attempted to negotiate with the cattle’s owner, but those conversations have failed to produce any change.
Mayrhoo is now calling for TTPS leadership to treat the issue as the public emergency it is, noting that the roaming cattle pose significant threats to resident safety and community health. “The police have to take the issue seriously. I don’t know if there is something in the law where they can enforce the law and force the owner to remove the cows from using the roads and from entering people’s properties and so on,” he said. He added that residents do have legal recourse to file damage claims against the cattle’s owner for any destruction to private property, but that does not resolve the ongoing risk to the community.
A community spokesperson for the affected neighborhoods confirmed to the *Express* that the roaming cattle have already caused widespread damage to private residential land, home kitchen gardens, municipal drainage systems, and public green spaces. Piles of cattle waste now line many local roadways, in some cases blocking vehicle access to streets and forcing residents to navigate hazardous, unsanitary conditions when walking through the area. What began as a rare, minor nuisance has escalated into a constant threat that has upended normal daily life for local residents, leaving many deeply frustrated with the lack of action from authorities.