Although he recently retired after giving over 40 years to the livestock sector, Pitamber Panday is still on duty to the farmers who need his help.
On the morning of Holy Saturday’s interview with Stabroek Weekend, Panday, 62, a former livestock development officer tended to calve with pneumonia at Vive Le Force and then went to La Retraite where a cow fell and came down with hypocalcemia. On Good Friday, he had tended to an eye-injured cow that was infected with worms. “I cleaned it. I was just helping. I will help as long as I have good health, ”he said.
Panday, who became known to farmers during his work such as’ The Animal Doctor ‘and’ Uncle Vet, said “the mutual respect he enjoyed with farmers over the years kept him in the job despite problems ranging from insufficient transport, insufficient staff to ensure the work is done effectively, and poor remuneration.
“There’s never enough staff. There were times when I had to act as a livestock helper, livestock officer and vet. During my time, I had a government house next to La Grange Police Station where I lived for 20 years. Now they are giving $ 30,000 for housing for non-resident personnel, ”he noted.
In March, the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) presented him with a plaque for his “dismal contributions to the livestock sector” for over 40 years. But you could say he was born for work.
Panday, although born in Annandale, East Coast Demerara, grew up in Mahaicony Creek as one of eight siblings.
After completing his secondary education, he stayed in Mahaicony for about five to six years, helping his father, a cattle and rice farmer.
“One day I saw an advertisement in one of the newspapers calling on students and animal health personnel to apply for a scholarship to go to the regional residential organization, REPAHA (Regional Animal Assistants Program) in Mon Repos. It was one of the best animal health organizations in Guyana. It catered to Caribbean students. They needed five Guyanese for a class of 38. I applied. At interview, there were about 60 of us. When Dr Allan Fox, head of REPAHA, heard that I was from Mahaicony, he asked me about the problems we had with animals, ”he recalls.
Panday told the interview panel that Mahaicony was a rice growing area and during the rice crop the animals would go to the rice fields, eat too much baddy and end up with a rumen impression, which affected digestion and causing for the cattle to become ill. He told them about the problems of calving and mastitis or milk fever in cattle and how they dealt with the problems.
“Dr Fox asked me if I would like to become a vet. Of course I said yes, ”he adds.
‘The Animal Doctor’
At REPAHA, which has since been abolished, he said, “We were trained by the best.” After graduation, the Guyanese students undertook a two-month orientation at the Ministry of Agriculture in Georgetown and subsequently were assigned to various fields as livestock officers. He was assigned to the Essequibo Coast.
“I didn’t want to go to Essequibo because I didn’t know how to cook. I went to the then minister of agriculture, Dr Pat McKenzie and told him my position. A few days later, he told me he will keep me at the head office. “At the head office, says Panday, he sat at his desk doing nothing and longed to go into the fields. One day, a colleague who graduated with him from REPAHA and worked on the West Coast Demerara, died in a road accident. Panday asked to fill the vacancy created by the death of his colleague.
“I operated on the West Bank. As in Mahaicony Creek, rumen impression was a major problem as it was also a rice cultivation area. During the mango season, the cows would also come down with acidosis from eating too much mangoes. In the beginning I had problems with transportation. You must inspect most of the animals on site for treatment. Sometimes the regional administration would give me a vehicle for one day during the week. Farmers would raise a blue flag and you know which house to stop. Sometimes, at the last minute, I wouldn’t get the vehicle and that would have a very hard impact on the farmers who relied on the service. Many times farmers would be very upset with me. ”
Then he bought a motorcycle. “For over ten years I rode the motorcycle to do my job. During that time people got to know me well. They started calling me ‘The Animal Doctor’. ”
While he was still single, he remembers, some farmers would go to his house after work or at weekends and turn off his stove if he cooked. They would ask him to take his kit and follow them. They would feed him and after that he would tend to the animals.
After marrying his high school sweetheart, he said, “They called me Uncle Vet and Uncle Cow Doctor and they called my wife Bibi, Aunt Vet and Aunt Cow Aunt.”
After ten years in office, he was given an off-duty concession to buy a car. This made his job a little easier.
Occupational hazards
In his work, he said, the poor people liked him and probably kept him in the job for so long. “I knew what it was to be poor. To buy text books, my father sold young animals reducing their value. ”
Although his working hours were from 8 am to 4pm, he worked round the clock. “Animals also give birth at night. Some births are difficult. A couple once told me that their cow had dropped off that afternoon. At 1.00 the next morning they came to help me because another calf was coming. I had to go and help them get out of the second calf. Sometimes cows give birth to twins and triplets. Calf birth can be very difficult. ”
He recalls that he went to Sisters Village to distribute a calf on a muddy dam one rainy day. “I took three hours to deliver the calf. Sometimes you just have to get on your knees. This time I had to lie down to do that transportation because the cow couldn’t stand up. When I finished I had to wash the mud from my clothes in the ditch to wear them again. ”
In 2014, when he was in bed with broken bones that he had after kicking a cow, he says, a farmer farmer complained to him about losing a calf because the veterinarian who was tending to the cow had not removed the spot and the cow became ill. The vet did not look at the calf and died of pneumonia. He believed that if Panday was there, he would not have lost the calf.
“These are poor farmers who need the help and can’t call a private vet. Some new staff would do what they have to do quickly and leave. One of the new staff accused me of spending too much time with farmers but I always remember Gavin Kennard, another agriculture minister who had charged us, to spend time with the farmers, show and learn to them what you learn, and follow up. ” That accusation has stayed with me. ”
The cow that kicked Panday had hypocalcemia after giving birth. “They told me the cow was stunned and trembling. I went right up and gave him a tap thinking he was weak. The cow responded with a quick kick which caused me to lose my balance and I fell heavily to the ground. I had to have surgery and put some screws in the bones to help the healing process. I was roundly criticized for being kicked by a cow because of my years of experience. ”
Beyond the call
“I’ve walked with almost every farmer in the backdam. Some of the young livestock assistants and vets would nowadays tell farmers to take the animals to them. No staff would do what I did. In fact, they attacked my method and said I had trained the people badly. ”
Farmers also have their own problems, he said. It is often difficult for them to bring 20 or more cows out of the backdam. “Not everyone had a tractor.”
Much of what he did was voluntary, he said. “Even if I worked in the evenings, I still had to go to work the next day. There was no overtime. How many other staff will do that today? If a farmer has to build a chicken pen or farrowing crate, I’d go on the weekends to show them how to build it. The farrowing crate is a cover in the pig pen to restrict the movements of the resulting pig so it does not crush the piglets to death. ”
One Easter Monday when his two children were young and he was supposed to take them to fly their kites, Panday said, there was a rabies outbreak on the West Coast. “A few farmers asked me to help vaccinate their animals. I returned home at 7pm. My wife asked me if this was the time I wanted to take the kids to fly a kite. “
In his work, he said, people have tried to bully him. Once, he said, a former high ranking regional officer who often took no advice, some old cows and one of them died. Panday blamed the death and called for his dismissal.
“The biggest mistake the officer made was phoning Dr McKenzie and telling him I refused to go to the backdam. I don’t know what Dr McKenzie told him but I heard the officer say that although I was one of the most active people they had in the fields, I got annoyed. “Panday gave the minister in writing, who copied the officer, his version of what happened. He remained in office.
Now, in retirement, he still stays in the job, advocating for farmers whenever the opportunity presents itself. “Livestock farmers need more land. I thought when the government abolished the Welsh Sugar Estate they were going to allocate land to livestock farmers and former estate workers. That’s what the authorities told us and that’s it [told] them, ”he explains.
Some farmers have their animals on the vacant estate grounds. “However, they cannot make pens to keep the calves safe, especially in the rainy season.”
Noting that Guyana has been declared free of foot and mouth disease, Panday says, “We could breed and export meat to the whole Caribbean. Our governments are not serious about raising animals. If you want sheep or pig farmers to produce well, you have to give them land. This country alone could supply mutton, goat, pork and duck to the whole Caribbean. Farmers are ready. Governments must also give lands to small and poor farmers. No one really helps them. If you are serious about raising livestock and you want farmers to adhere to good management practices, they had to have proper housing for animals and this needs space. “
“We are, in the [GLDA] has been advocating for slotted floors for small ruminants. Slotted floor pens are elevated and built with wood and gaps so the fold will be dry and clean, ”he adds.
Provision must be made for very pregnant animals, animals in heat and for small animals. “If you want to save animals, you had to get proper housing, and land is needed for this. Everyone just talks, ”he said.
When he’s still not fighting for farmers, Panday says he enjoys his gardening hobby. “My only regret is that I lost my wife. We had planned to retire at Mahaicony Creek, live where the air is more oxygenated, and bathe in the bay just as I did as a boy. I can’t go alone anymore, ”he adds.