Financial Crisis Leads to Increase in Livestock Rustling

With the financial crisis hitting all business sectors, the farming industry is reporting an increase in livestock theft. The cost of meat is rising, leading to sheep, cattle and pigs being taken from farms. It is suspected that many of the stolen animals are slaughtered inhumanely and incorporated into the food sector for human consumption, bypassing many of the stringent health and safety and hygiene regulations.

Recently nine rare breed cattle worth thousands of pounds were stolen, while sixty Blackface sheep are thought to have been herded up and stolen from a Scottish island in an organised operation and another fifty sheep taken from a farm near Newton Abbot. In Dorset, two rams worth around four hundred pounds each were stolen from a farm. The rams were pedigree Poll Dorset sheep, used for breeding, but are likely to have ended up in the food chain. A farmer in Herefordshire had 200 sheep worth an estimated ten thousand pounds stolen.

There is great concern for the impact on National parks such as Dartmoor, where local breed sheep are hefted and so naturally stay in a restricted area of the feel. If these sheep are stolen it is very difficult to replace them. Local farmers are also fearful of putting their animals out to graze for fear of rustling and this will likely have a knock on effect on the environment and features of the fells.

Unfortunately it is thought that the thefts are being carried out by people involved in the farming industry or at least with a farming background, as to round up several sheep and transport them away, takes a well trained dog and the knowledge and skill to load a large number of sheep into a lorry, usually under the cover of darkness.

Farmers in remote locations are organising their own watch schemes and anyone seeing sheep trailers or lorries transporting animals during the night, should take a note of the vehicle and registration number and report the matter.