Crunch time for farmers battling against livestock rustlers

Apr 12 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

CRIMINALS have switched from stealing scrap metal to raiding livestock in the latest crime wave to strike amid the credit crunch. COREENA FORD reports.

FARMERS often keep odd hours at this time of year, watching over their sheep during the lambing season.

But many are now staying up all night to guard their flocks for a more sinister reason . . . to look out for livestock rustlers.

As the recession surges on, meat prices have soared, leading to an equally sharp rise in cases of livestock rustling, with sheep, cattle and pigs being stolen to order.

Sheep and deer appear to be top of the North rustlers’ menu, with several crimes reported in recent months.

Twenty ewes about to lamb were stolen from a farm in Lowick, Cumbria, four pregnant ewes were savagely butchered and gutted in a field near Staindrop, County Durham, and several deer were stolen from Raby Castle, near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

Opportunists are also thieving anything from red-breasted geese to chickens in Cumbria, in an attempt to make a fast buck. And these are just the crimes we know about.

Many farmers don’t report thefts because they can’t give police an accurate time the crime took place.

Peter Hogg, 57, is continuing a family farming tradition, started in 1844, with his 300 cattle and 600 sheep kept on a farm near Morpeth, Northumberland, but many roam the hillsides, making accurate counts difficult.

A few years ago, 16 sheep vanished overnight and he fears a repeat theft. Back then each sheep was worth £40 but today they fetch £100 each. Peter said: “Livestock rustling is always in the back of everyone’s mind. I hear talk down the pub, with people saying so-and-so’s had some sheep stolen, someone else has had some beef taken.

“When they are stolen from the fields you can’t always be sure when it happened. I do a daily count but it’s difficult to get a precise number if they’re spread out in fields and on the hills, so you sometimes won’t notice any are missing for a couple of days.”

Farmer and Northumberland county councillor Glen Sanderson, of Eshott, Northumberland, said: “I know some farmers are staying up all night to watch their flocks. We also have a big problem with deer being stolen in the Morpeth area, which is cruel.”

The National Farmers Union – NFU – say rustling also puts the animals’ welfare and the public’s health in jeopardy.

When four sheep were savagely killed in a field in Barnard Castle, County Durham, a health alert had to be issued because they had all recently been given worming treatments, making any meat the rustlers tried to sell unfit for human consumption.

NFU spokesman, Carl Hudspith, said: “Farmers care about their animals and their welfare. They rear beef and lamb to high welfare standards and regulations and the NFU is concerned about what will happen to the stolen animals.” The close-knit rural community is, however, hitting back through Farmwatch, a network of volunteers which works with police to deter rural crime.

Sgt Chris Knox, of County Durham Police, works closely with the Farmwatch scheme for Teesdale and Weardale, which has as many as 800 community volunteers acting as the force’s eyes and ears.

The police send recorded messages to members, alerting them to suspicious vehicles in the area. The recent Operation Flint identified 50 suspects believed to be involved in areas of rural crime . . . and 40 have since been arrested.

Sgt Knox said: “We’ve had some very positive results from Farmwatch. Thefts of animals is on the increase – there have been three incidents here in the last six months – and it’s definitely on our radar.”

Northumbria police have introduced a Gamewatch scheme to tackle poachers.

PC Katrina Cassidy said: “It operates in the same way as Farmwatch and involves farmers and landowners keeping in contact with us and each other.

“We abhor the inhumane way animals are being killed by those without the skill, who regard it as a bloodthirsty past-time.”