Permits required to rear animals within MoBay’s city limits, says mayor

WESTERN BUREAU:

Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon has indicated that residents may rear animals within the city’s limits but they must do so in a way that does not disrupt their communities and only after securing permission from the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC).

Vernon made the declaration during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the StJMC, where a resolution was passed to gazette Montego Bay and Rose Hall as restricted zones for rearing animals under the Keeping of Animals Act. The resolution added chickens and crabs to the prescribed list of animals due to several complaints that were made in relation to their farming in the city limits.

“The restriction is one that is supported by a permit system. The permit will be issued to persons who demonstrate the ability and capacity to farm or to keep animals within the designated space, so we are not saying that you cannot rear animals or keep animals within the space, but you must fulfil the requirements,” said Vernon.

“When you apply to the municipal corporation for a licence to keep animals, we will ask our officers to do their investigation, and we will also ask the public health services to do their due diligence. Once the applicants have a suitable location, then we will issue the permit to those persons,” Vernon continued.

ANIMALS LISTED UNDER RESOLUTION

According to Vernon, chickens and crabs have been added to the list of animals identified under the resolution due to complaints about crab farming in some communities within Montego Bay’s environs. He also noted that the animals listed in the resolution do not include cats, dogs, or exotic animals being kept as pets.

“We got reports of crab farming in communities like West Green, in the Catherine Hall area, and residents brought that to our attention. We have to be mindful as to how we do these things within the space because it affects others, and that is why it is necessary to have an established system that ensures that persons who seek to do these activities meet requirements so as to not throw off other residents or to disrupt the community in any shape or form,” said Vernon.

Commenting on the resolution, Kerry Thomas, the councillor for the StJMC’s Mt Salem Division, suggested that applicants should be able to show where they have adequate land space on their premises to farm animals.

“I think we should have special conditions where people should have a certain amount of land space on whatever property they have within the space and be a certain distance from the nearest homes or water sources. You will find some places within the city limits that may be acceptable to growing chickens or whatever else because of the rural nature of those places,” said Thomas.

In February this year, Vernon announced that he would petition the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to have sections of Montego Bay declared off limits for the rearing of animals. At that time, it was outlined that approximately 100 complaints about stray animals were made to the St James Health Services’ Environmental Health Unit since 2023 while more than 30 cases of hazards associated with stray animals were reported to the StJMC since 2024.

During Thursday’s meeting, the StJMC also passed a resolution establishing Montego Bay’s city limits, with the boundaries extending to Reading and Fairfield in the west, Ironshore and Flanker in the east, and Salt Spring and neighbouring communities in the south.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com