Sheep rustling is on the rise in UK

October 4th, 2011 - 8:08 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

London, Oct 4 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Farmers in Britain and Scotland are being forced to count their losses after the incidents of sheep rustling rose by more than 80 percent. The first eight months of the year saw more than 30,000 sheep stolen from the United Kingdom. It is believed that the criminals sell the meat at the international black market.

Police in the United Kingdom suspect that organized crime gangs may be behind the latest cases. The thieves mostly target remote farms and the authorities say they suspect that animals are carried into bigger trucks.

In an instance, an entire flock worth £100,000 was stolen from a farm in Lincolnshire last month. The police say about 1,500 sheep were stolen from the farm and the meat could end up in the market. Authorities say the theft was the biggest in the United Kingdom in a quarter of a century.

Louth CID’s DC Nick Jones told reporters that, “This is clearly a very organised crime that would have involved a number of people and the use of two 3-tier articulated transporters.”

Sheep rustling is turning out to be very expensive to the farmers in Britain. It is estimated that the farmers lose about £1.5 million every year because of the thefts.

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