WILLEMSTAD - Livestock farmers in Curaçao are fed up with the lack of action by the police against goat theft. According to them, between sixty to eighty goats are stolen every week, and the meat ends up in the shops of Chinese mini-markets and stores.
This was stated by Elvin Gerard, a member of parliament for the ruling party PNP, who had a meeting this week with a group of forty livestock farmers from Bándabou, Bándariba, and the central region of Curaçao.
According to the parliamentarian, the farmers file complaints, including in Barber, but the police take no action, while the situation, according to Gerard, is becoming increasingly alarming.
Due to the thefts, livestock farmers are losing a significant amount of money. It costs a farmer at least forty to fifty thousand guilders for a goat from birth to adulthood, and the feeding costs are high.
Gerard is now seeking a meeting with the police chief and the Minister of Justice to find a solution together with the farmers. The farmers believe that stricter penalties should be imposed on the culprits.