Thursday, March 28, 2024

Slaughtering 77 animals by government was cruel – NDC

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Some of the slaughtered animals lying in a pool of blood in Choma after the department of Livestock slaughtered them on Saturday
Some of the slaughtered animals lying in a pool of blood in Choma after the department of Livestock slaughtered them on Saturday

The National Democratic Congress says the Slaughter of 77 animals by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock was very cruel.

Axon Kaonga, the party Member of the Central Committee noted that at crucial time like this, when Zambia’s economy keeps dwindling, people expect Government to help the citizenry to cushion against poverty and hard times instead of sponsoring and reinforcing suffering.

Mr. Kaonga has since condemned the mass slaughter of animals (38 cattle, 28 sheep and 11 goats) of a farmer from Macha valued at K138, 000 by the department of livestock.

He said whereas, the NDC does not encourage lawlessness, it also does not elevate policy above humanity.

Mr. Kaonga said Government has failed to effectively prevent foot and mouth disease and provide adequate funding to deploy more extension officers country wide leaving famers to fend for themselves and fight foot and mouth disease.

He wondered how government can then slaughter so many animals without establishing if they had foot and mouth disease when farmers have not produced enough crops that bring food on the table and help them send their children to school because of drought.

Mr. Kaonga has since reiterated the need for government to test every animal for food and mouth disease and only kill those animals which are infected.

He lamented that the mass killing of animals without first isolating infected animals from the non infected ones is cruelty of its highest level.

Mr. Kaonga said the animals should have been quarantined, treated and thereafter allow the farmer to sell them.

30 COMMENTS

  1. THIS IS VERY SAD INDEED.
    PEOPLE MUST HAVE A HUMAN FACE.
    LAW IS LAW BUT GOING TO THE EXTENT OF SLAUGHTERING ALL THE ANIMALS LIKE THAT IS VERY UNFAIR.

    • Heeesh these PF are barbarians, lineup cows as they watch others kicking and mourning as they die… Imagine animal number 76& 77 looked at each. Sobbing, shaking, begging in terror as they face PF imported Chinese pangas smoking blood!!!
      Ba Edgar declare National mourning for the poor animals.

      All flags should be at half mast

    • The law had no human face. We just have to follow it. That’s how we can become like America everyone is dreaming to be. They follow the law there. I have been told the man will be pesecuted

  2. Please make political capital of this..until this farmer is compensated: let’s have respect for farmers you have thieves like Chitotela who stole buy he is still going to the office and attending court sessions at the time

  3. Human Beings are Pharisees by nature!
    They don’t know how to use the Law! They always want others to carry loads they can’t move with one finger!
    Justice, Mercy and Faith is the APPLlCATION of the Law!
    Love is the PRINCIPLE of Laws, Commandments, Statutes and Judgements!
    What happened in Choma is failure to understand the difference between the two!

  4. Like one blogger observed in the previous article, why have these animals slaughtered halaal style as if they are been readed for human consumption , if indeed they were suspected to be infected animals. Something fishy about the all issue.

  5. The animals themselves are not sick,but because the farmer broke the movement ban,you chose to kill the whole heard.Then you go home to your family and tell them that you are from work.

    • Mushota, BR and Nubian Prince – These three men amuse me! They have all grown grey commenting trash on this portal. I went away in 2013 to do my masters and I have since completed my PHd and they are still here spewing trash. People have time to waste!

  6. Those are the results when you employ cadres instead of professionals. Thinking capacity is very low.

  7. Whoever has the mandate to enforceing the law , should realise that the law does not think. Therefore, it’s upon the person enforcing the law to reason in the best interest of everyone. Therefore slataling animals without due consideration was cruel. He should have the decency of establishing whether the animals where indeed infected .

  8. People please let the government deduct money from whoever ordered the slaughter. And the officer in charge of the slaughter is from the area so why did he order the action. He should know better than anyone else how important animals are in the area

  9. When some disease breaks out due some reason or the other on our farms, we tell the Govt. to control the disease. But when they do what they know best, we wear a “Human face” and condemn everyone who is trying to stop the spread of the disease. If the Govt does nothing then the arm chair critics say the Govt has let down the people. What a bunch of low level calibre we are.! Much as we sympathize with the break out of the disease, it must be controlled before it gets out of hand. Let the experts do their work.

    • @Chendabusiku NO,NO ,NO.The FAMD broke out more than four months ago initially in Monze District.Vaccinations were supposed to be done immediately after this around the outbreak area to create a ring corridor but this was delayed due to lack of funds.When the vaccinations arrived the disease had spread widely to other areas.The government is failing to control the disease due to inadequate funding and low morale among vet staff who are not paid allowances. The disease is spreading further and meanwhile all the farmers can not move their animals to markets. And these are the same farmers who did not harvest any crops due to drought.The government has not prioritised the control of FAMD. This has endangered thousands of lives.

    • All they had to do was test these animals. And why sell them for human consumption. It would have made more sense if the animals were infected and killed, but as it stands this farmer should have been fined.

    • I know where you are coming from, but let us be honest here.Veterinary is no different from standard medicine.The best course of action would have been quarantine,followed by diagnostic tests to determine whether the animals are infected.What they did was too drastic, we are human beings,even animals exhibit empathy.You just don’t go out there killing animals like Robots.

    • For sure we need to allow the stricktiest measures taken. Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia for the past three years have lost over 100 000 cows due to the disease unknown. if we have to prevent every cow to the we need very strict measures. Only famers would understand how just one mistake can wipe out every livestock.

      actually Zambia is too lenient that’s why we shall never reach where Botswana is. just fail to deep your shoe in the bag in Botswana the whole bus will be impounded and heavily fined. Better few die than all famers get affected.

      the farmer could be helped though and that can start from you and me donate not condemning the law.

    • So far o this platform RB Mumba has been comenting sensible issues . I have learnt from him. He is very objective. He is not using emotions but states facts.. of the law say to move animals don’t. I have been told this deases had no cure and can wipe out cattle in a Nation

    • Let the vet due their job.. the problem is zambia is that we give a lot coverage to ignorance . NDC has a lot of it .

    • The slaughtering of the animals was a cruel thing to do but as usual the NDC just wanted to gain some points as a caring party. Not that he cares one way or another .

  10. Let the denkete and foot and mouth disease finish there animals due to stupidity and let’s see gullible bloggers who see everything through tribe. Pathetic characters.

  11. If you think you can make better VET doctors than the ones we have at Macha kindly apply for a Bachelor of Veterinary medicine at UNZA. Its available to every citizen with the capacity. Before that let the VET guys do the job they are trained to do. Its that simple!

  12. Law is law and it should be applied, it is better slaughter 100 cattle and save 3,000,000. Please do not ply politics where you are not qualified ask HH and Guy Scott hence there are no two ways about it if we have to fight livestock diseases.

  13. 13, 14 and 15. You’re right. Bloggers here should not politicize sickness. Movement of that flock may have exposed them to the disease; that’s why the ban was in place. Cows are not human; that’s why you don’t ‘slaughter’ overabundant elephants to control the environment, you ‘crop’ or ‘cull’ them…people are playing with words to affect opinion. Those cows were ‘exterminated’ to control the spread of a disease. A highly trained ‘One World’ and none partisan Field Epidemiologist did his job well. Politicians and their cadres should stick to the lane they know; they’ll tell us quarantining someone with ebola symptoms is inhumane…just to gain political mileage. We cannot afford to fight a full fledged epidemic!

  14. This is not political or something to do with carders. but the fact is there is always a solution to everything. what did they gain in killing those animals. nothing but the stupid person was the one who ordered to kill those animals. did they consider the owner and his family, No. anyway days are numbered

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