Is wildlife or wild-free-for-all?
Apr 16, 2025
Kaieteur News- Dem boys seh de only thing more endangered than de wildlife in Guyana is common sense. Long time people used to hunt wild duck and labba to feed dem family. Now is anything that moving, crawling, hopping or flying – once it blink, it getting catch, skinned, and stewed down in pepperpot or curry.
Dem boys pass near de Abary Bridge de odda day and couldn’t believe dem eye. Big, fat iguana – de kind that look like prehistoric dragon – tied up and hang up like plantain bunch. One man holler, “Get yuh green meat here!” Dem boys nearly ask if it come with rice and peas.
And talking bout meat, wild meat used to be a delicacy. Now is standard menu at fancy function. De big ones dem having anteater stew. Dem boys seh when you reach certain events and hear dem announce “buffet open,” you better check if de zoo short of animals de next day.
But is not just de belly that causing de problem. Some people using wildlife for recreation. One man tell dem boys he went to “shoot birds” and when dem ask if he was tagging and releasing, he seh, “Na bai, I was aiming fuh de eye!” Imagine dat – parrot, toucan, even de endangered ones like de harpy eagle, all being used fuh target practice like dem is tin can on a fence.
Yet, every other week yuh hearing big speech how Guyana protecting biodiversity. Dem boys seh de only biodiversity being protected is de one in de freezer and in de pot. De only thing more diverse than Guyana ecosystem is de list of animals ending up in soup.
Time fuh strong regulation. Otherwise, dem boys seh de only wildlife we gon left with is cockroach and mosquito.
And guess what? Even dem might start disappearing soon — if somebody find a recipe.
Talk half. Leff half
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