Stolen Sheep

george27

hi all,
im new tio this so please bear with me. Last month my grandfather had 20 sheep stolen out of 26 of this years lambs. 6 last yeatr and 10 the year before. the farm is down a valley and is quite isolated. the neighbours have the same problem with 15 and 12 gone from them.
my questions are: How do they get away with it as they are tagged and i presume cannot be sold at the mart without documentation. and surely slaughter houses need proof of ownership etc and even if the butcher owns the place he needs to prove where the meat came from etc..
basically im just looking for info on this and has it happened to anyone before on here

leg wax

if i had sheep and some died i would just swap them cut eartags out order replacement tags. who is going to keep a eye on a butcher as you have said, when vet is gone bring in sheep process and out into van and gone. its very simple.but very wrong .

jmrc

Its a big problem now sheep are worth a few euro. Guy's will steal them and generally have a contact in the factory to get them in or they can re-tag them with some other lads tags, and the sheep will then be passed off as their own. hard to trace one way or the other. Best if the sheep are looked at every day if possible, counted and then the time frame can be narrowed down and it can also act as a deterrent...

By the numbers quoted, I'd hazzord a quess that these boy's know what they are up to and have a knowledge of the area..IMO.

pakalasa

I heard recently that a foreign national was stopped in Tipperary with a boot full of cut up meat. They believe that he was selling it to fellow country men. They were stealing cattle and butchering them themselves.

johngalway

george27 wrote: »

hi all,
im new tio this so please bear with me. Last month my grandfather had 20 sheep stolen out of 26 of this years lambs. 6 last yeatr and 10 the year before. the farm is down a valley and is quite isolated. the neighbours have the same problem with 15 and 12 gone from them.
my questions are: How do they get away with it as they are tagged and i presume cannot be sold at the mart without documentation. and surely slaughter houses need proof of ownership etc and even if the butcher owns the place he needs to prove where the meat came from etc..
basically im just looking for info on this and has it happened to anyone before on here

If I'm reading the situation right, the sheep that were stolen were all under 9 months of age?

Then all they have to do is cut out the existing tag, re-tag and re-brand the sheep. Job done. Sell them at a far away mart if they like.No one would know.

Local man had twelve ewes stolen lately. Their tags were cut out and they were re-branded. He went to the cops who not only wouldn't go with him when he found out where the sheep were, but told him not to go either :mad:

He went and fair play to him got the twelve ewes back.

I wouldn't pin much sheep rustling on foreigners, we've no shortage of home grown thieves.

george27

thanks for the replies. i didnt think that this was such a common practice and it was that easy to "loose" them. think next year il just have to bring them in the evenings. we only have 87 sheep so need to do something as this years lamb that are left are no where near enough to replace old sheep. thanks again for the help.

johngalway

Know of another case where two farmers on the same commonage had 50 ewes taken between them. Never to be heard of again.

Sheep rustling on a small scale has been rife in this area for years. But, it's mostly the same lads stealing back and forth of one another if the stories are to be believed

If there's only one road in and out of the valley, a 12v infra red camera watching the road at a slow spot might be of use. But it'd be a long job of making sure the batteries were charged, hide it well and don't ever tell a soul it's there. At least you'd see who's coming and going when sheep would go missing - if they're being taken by road, obviously I don't know the area!

Bodacious

johngalway wrote: »

george27 wrote: »

hi all,
im new tio this so please bear with me. Last month my grandfather had 20 sheep stolen out of 26 of this years lambs. 6 last yeatr and 10 the year before. the farm is down a valley and is quite isolated. the neighbours have the same problem with 15 and 12 gone from them.
my questions are: How do they get away with it as they are tagged and i presume cannot be sold at the mart without documentation. and surely slaughter houses need proof of ownership etc and even if the butcher owns the place he needs to prove where the meat came from etc..
basically im just looking for info on this and has it happened to anyone before on here

If I'm reading the situation right, the sheep that were stolen were all under 9 months of age?

Then all they have to do is cut out the existing tag, re-tag and re-brand the sheep. Job done. Sell them at a far away mart if they like.No one would know.

Local man had twelve ewes stolen lately. Their tags were cut out and they were re-branded. He went to the cops who not only wouldn't go with him when he found out where the sheep were, but told him not to go either :mad:

He went and fair play to him got the twelve ewes back.

I wouldn't pin much sheep rustling on foreigners, we've no shortage of home grown thieves.

That's mental , why exactly do we have the gardai

Charlie Charolais

Local man had twelve ewes stolen lately. Their tags were cut out and they were re-branded. He went to the cops who not only wouldn't go with him when he found out where the sheep were, but told him not to go either :mad:

He went and fair play to him got the twelve ewes back.

What happened the thief?

johngalway

Charlie Charolais wrote: »

Local man had twelve ewes stolen lately. Their tags were cut out and they were re-branded. He went to the cops who not only wouldn't go with him when he found out where the sheep were, but told him not to go either :mad:

He went and fair play to him got the twelve ewes back.

What happened the thief?

Not sure yet. Possibly nothing when the cops wouldn't go along. However two people were involved and their names are extremely well known now. (and no, I'm not naming anyone ).

george27

@john galway
yea thats exactly what im going to do next year. infra red camera around the place. should be able to catch them then i hope.

jmrc

Just as a matter of intrest, were the gates to the fields locked?

Rollant46

Ya its a common practice around the midlands and the west where there is commonage. 2 years ago we had 15 hogget ewes and 5 two -three year old ewes stolen of commanage. Disappeared without a trace. :mad:

george27

just wondering.would micro chipping sheep/lambs be any good?