by JP Schwmon #SituationUpdates
Youth farmer and Cultural Ambassador Hance John has filed a criminal complaint after 3 pigs from his recently rebranded farming efforts were stolen.
Sometime between 12 and 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday January 11 the animals were slaughtered on the Westfield farm which is located in Evesham. Their carcasses were dragged off and the animals’ entrails left in pools of blood onsite.
John, who is currently overseas on vacation, told Asbert News Network that his farm manager called him with the disturbing news about 5:30 a.m Eastern Standard Time.
“He told me they killed them right on the spot and they took out the belly and all these things deh in the pen with a whole heap ah blood…. I have young pigs about 5 months or so; he told me that it was the three big ones that they took.
“They were good sized because we are feeding them well, fattening them up because we want to get them up and ready so we feed them twice per day.”
Of the 8 young pigs in the Westfield husbandry, John said, the thieves made off with one gilt and two barrows.
“I know the guys in the area who are carrying out these types of criminal activities and everyone in the community know who they are. They are well aware of who they are, they are well aware of what they do.
“And they have a style that they are accustomed to do – to take out the stomachs and leave the pig belly. So it’s easy to associate them with the act; they repeatedly do these things. They have a pattern and people know who they are.
“They have a style, they leave their trademark – taking out the pig intestines and leaving it on the ground. Is one set of people who doing that because they want to make the carcass light, ” John shared.
The farmlands were inherited from John’s father, Westfield Theodore John, a well-known farmer in the area, and are located nearby two of his siblings’ homes. According to John, his brother “heard the dogs barking and the pigs making noise but he looked about and then the noises stopped.”
Later that morning, when the crime was discovered, the farmers realized that the pig feed, which was stored onsite, was used as a ploy to quiet the disturbed animals.
“I strongly believe that it’s not one person [who was involved in the theft] because to move 3 good sized pigs – average weight say around 30 or 40 pounds or even more because when I left they were good sized – compared to where they were when they were slaughtered.
“The least I would have gotten for one of those pigs is say $300 to $350, alive, much less to if I killed them myself and they were growing because we were fattening them up.”
Hance John, who is also a Vincentian entertainer, bemoaned the fact that the stolen animals “were [amongst] the very first batch of piglets” born to the sow with which he started his pig farm.
He told ANN: “they were from my very first investment. That’s what really started Westfield Farm before even the vegetables and what’s not. The pig was the first thing that I got and I ain’t even get a return on it as yet….
“The farm was named after my father. So it would have been his legacy continued. I used to do it all the time but I never thought of branding it and stuff like that not until the volcanic eruption when I employed several evacuees as a means of creating some employment and trying to lift their spirits and give back so that they won’t be bored in the shelters doing nothing.
“Most of them were farmers so I utilized their expertise and their skills to rebuild the farm while at the same time giving back the humanitarian efforts as well because they got paid and they got to relieve some of the pressure from being in the shelter and all the damages that were done to their homes.
“It really became a means of helping them out while establishing a business.”
Up to the time of publishing investigations were ongoing but no suspects were as yet in police custody.
