Concerns are being raised in Gbardi Town, Foya District, Lofa County following the overnight butchering of 36 cows that were found dead last Thursday, July 6.
The cows were kept on a large field alongside 19 others before some heavy rainfall and lightning strike on Wednesday night but a local scientist in the county is predicting a strange disease as the possible cause of death.
Lofa County’s Animal Health Officer, Musa Kamara, said following the incident, the caretaker of the cows informed their owner, who is believed to reside in Monrovia about what had happened and the caretaker was mandated by the owner to cut off the tails of all the affected cows, which he did on the morning of Thursday, July 6.
However, by the morning of Friday, July 7, all of the dead cows had been butchered and taken away by looters to the utmost surprise of Kamara and other residents of the town.
The police have made no arrest as of yet.
According to him, the mysterious disappearance of those dead cows has put fear in many locals in the county as the specimen of the cows would have helped to determine the cause of death, if be collected.
Kamara has warned the public of eating the dead cows without knowing what is responsible for their death, citing that any strange breakout in the county might be of health concern in the future as well as now.
However, some residents in Gbardi Town told the state broadcaster (ELBC) that they had been complaining to the owner of those cows, whose identity is still unknown as well as the local authorities in the district about how their crops were being destroyed and damaged by the animals, but all their complaints fell on deaf ears.
Some of them are of the belief that those cows died from lightning strikes, not from any disease, as the public is being made to believe by local authorities and the animal health officer.
It is not known whether this has ever happened in Lofa or any other part of the country, where cattle or cows have died in such a large number under mysterious circumstances, hence the public concern.
