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Homestead Park: residential suburb or somebody’s pasture?

Residents say cattle pose health risks to the community.

by Zahid Jadwat

In Homestead Park, cattle roam freely. Picture: TDT News/Facebook

 

Residents of Homestead Park, Johannesburg, have had enough with herds of cattle roaming their suburban streets.

“I don’t think we’re meant to see anything like that in Jo’burg itself,” said Abdur Rahman Loonat, chairperson of the Homestead Park Community Forum, in an interview with Salaamedia this week.

The community has had to put up with agricultural animals roaming their neighbourhood for the past five years.

 

They can complain all they want, but authorities are unwilling to deal with the matter, they claim.

“They’re roaming around in our park day-in and day-out, walking about on the streets, on the main roads, and they pose such a severe threat to the park itself, wildlife, everything. It’s a big issue that we’re facing at the moment,” he said.

Sohail Tarag, executive member of the community forum, explained how the situation quickly spiralled out of control.

“Initially, it started with just a handful of cows and over the years the cows have been reproducing. We’ve seen exponential growth and at the moment, we have 30-40 cows in our park. It’s a massive amount of cows in our park.”

While keeping livestock in an urban area is not illegal, there are regulations that must be followed to ensure it does not endanger residents’ lives. For one, animals must be kept in a suitable enclosure and at a distance from humans.

But in Homestead Park, cattle are kept in a public park and allowed to roam the neighbourhood.

According to Tarag, a man from nearby Riverlea was identified as the owner of the cattle. Their engagements with him have been “very hostile” since “he’s extremely aggressive” and “he’s not open to engagement”, he said.

On their dealing with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), he explained “Their argument is that they’re not mandated to take the cows away; they don’t have the equipment to load the cows up.”

 

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