RHON­DOR DOWLAT 

Se­nior Re­porter 

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt 

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard in­ter­cept­ed a pirogue off the coast of Ch­aguara­mas. 

The ves­sel was found on Sat­ur­day with one Trinida­di­an na­tion­al and five Venezue­lan na­tion­als aboard, along with six­teen an­i­mals.

The Coast Guard con­tact­ed the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Ma­rine In­ter­dic­tion Unit, which alert­ed the Air­port Ros­tered Vet­eri­nar­i­an and the Se­nior Vet­eri­nary Of­fi­cer. 

Af­ter the ves­sel was docked at Coast Guard fa­cil­i­ties in Staubles Bay, Ch­aguara­mas, all the an­i­mals on board were eu­th­a­nized. 

The an­i­mals in­clud­ed 13 sheep, two dogs, and one chick­en.

San­itec Lim­it­ed han­dled the de­con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and dis­pos­al of the car­cass­es, which in­volved trans­porta­tion, in­cin­er­a­tion, and dis­in­fec­tion of the premis­es.

The Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries af­firmed its on­go­ing com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing the health and safe­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cit­i­zens, as well as pro­tect­ing the coun­try’s agri­cul­tur­al in­dus­try.