Sheep rustler

[Denise Wall]

I had a single ewe stolen within the last week. It was one of the ewe lambs from last year, about 15-16 months old, who didn't lamb this year. They were in the group with the weaned lambs. It was the biggest fattest sheep out there. There's a gate right by the road (that I've stupidly never locked) in the area they were in and they like to graze down there in the early morning. Someone could have easily roped her, hogtied her and taken off with her without causing much stir that we or the dogs could hear. A suspicious character drove up recently and asked if I had any sheep for sale. Of course, I have no evidence he did this, but the timing is right.

 

Anybody else ever had stock stolen?

[Valhalla]

Yea, that seems suspicious to me! There have been sightings of bears in our area - think something like that could have killed her and taken her off to eat her?

 

Last night Randy was telling Sam, Robin and I about how he had some sheep stolen, but I don't think it was recently.

[Denise Wall]

No, I don't think it could be predators. I've never had a sheep killed by predators. The outside fence is 5' plank with ranch mesh lining it. It would be hard to drag her over that big of a fence. She's not dead anywhere on the property. There's pretty much no way she could have gotten out either. She just vanished.

[Pipedream Farm]

I don't know much about the different breeds of guardian dogs. I had an article describing one of the breeds (Akbash?) as being protective against people as well as predators. Just something to think about. I've heard stories before just like what you describe though. He should have come to me. If we don't get more rain, I'll be selling off everything right and left!

Renee

[DeltaBluez Tess]

Yep, I had a nice coop with newborn twins stolen out of my barn from a stall. The day before this guy drove up and wanted to buy a ewe/twins lambs for $50 total and I told him that the ewes/lambs were $300.

 

The next day when I got home, my main gate was open, the barn stall door was opened and a ewe with her new borne twins were gone. Mind you I had just put her in the stall the night before and she lambeed. She had a clip on the gate so there was no way she could have gotten out. The main gate to the farm was open and it was latched.

 

Called the cops and they were worthless.

 

A few weeks later, 5 ewes about ready to lamb disappeared from a secure pasture. Called the cops and the same first worthless cop came out.

 

He said (again) that my sheep were escaping and I pointed out to him the TIRE TREADS MARKS and OIL STAIN near the pasture gate and told him to touch the oil. It was fresh and told him that I NEVER drove my van/truck down there and he better take a report this time.

 

Then the next night, a mile or so away, several goats disappeared. The cop returned to my place and finally realized that some rustling was happening in the valley.

 

Finally put padlocks on all gates, told neighbors and when anyone came down my driveway, the neighbor would come down and block the person and grill them. They took the license plates etc....told whoever drove on my protery that they had their plates and if anything was missing they were in trouble. Scared the hell out of the gal who brought my horse back from breeding as they blocked her and peered inside her trailer. (I was at work)

 

The word finally drifted back to the thief as he did not steal any more sheep that yr.

 

I have a Grt Pyr now and he is very protective. Now I just have to deal with the pack of coyotes near my pasture.

 

The ewe they took was one of my pet ewes too......her name was Fluffy and she was a great mom and a real joy...would greet me each time etc....

 

Diane

[Denise Wall]

I called the sheriff's dept to report it, but told them not to make a big deal out of it since I'm sure I'll never get her back. I just wanted to let them know in case there was a rash of these thefts in the area. They said they had no other reports as of yet. It's not the 4th of July yet though so we'll see...

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

PM'd you, Denise.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I have a Marremma who is extremely protective against people and dogs. Characteristics like this vary among individuals, lines, and between breeds, but roughly the more "primitive" the breed the more aggressively protective characteristics you'll get.

 

Pyrs fall into the more passive side of territorialness and patroling, while some of the Eastern European and Asian breeds get into active ranging and elimination of percieved potential threats. These types of dogs also have less tolerance for human interferance. The plus side is they are very stock wise, too. Though these are the worst individuals to mess with young stock until they are trained not to, like a keen young stock dog that's almost dangerous until its instincts are apropriately channeled. This can frustrate people who don't realize that they mess with the stock because they are learning to react to "right" and "wrong" in the stock and do something about it (usually something stupid and aggravating - like our young stockdogs NEVER do anything like that!).

 

Ahem, anyway, I'll get down off my LGD hobby horse now. I adore mine and have to curb my enthusiasm sometimes!

 

[Shoofly]

Hey Denise - I'd missed this. Geez, that's terrible! I've worried someone might want to help themselves to my sheep before, after a sleezy looking guy asked me about them one time. fortunately no problems so far. It's one reason i don't sell to individuals right off the farm though since my place is back out of sight. I'd rather lose a few bucks going through a middleman than come out one day to sheep or equipment missing.

[Bill Fosher]

Bipedal predation of urban and suburban sheep flocks is become more and more of a problem. Most of my sheep are not visible from the roads, so few people know they are here, or how easy it would be to pinch one and that I wouldn't know for a while.

 

Coyote predation of young sheep (lambs less than 75 lbs) usually looks like nothing happened, but you come up short when you count noses (or legs/4). The most you'll see is a stray tuft of wool. When a coyote takes a large lamb or a full-grown ewe that it can't get out of the field, you'll find it opened up and usually the heart, lungs, and liver will be gone. Once the organs are done, they will start on the ribs, and go to the large muscles last, generally leaving the entrails and stomach contents for the vultures.

 

If it had been one of this year's lambs that had vanished without a trace, I would suspect coyotes. But since it's a big ewe, I suspect Denise is correct that the person who came around looking for a sheep probably had a nice July 4 mutton roast.

 

I know that my former employer, Bellwether Solutions, has had pickup truck loads of sheep stolen from parks it was grazing in Tallahassee, Florida. These were probably commercial rustlers, as opposed to the single-animal theives who are stealing for their own consumption.

 

I make a point of getting the name and address of anyone who comes around asking for lambs, and if I don't have any to sell then, I tell them that I can't sell them a lamb because the flock was just medicated and the meat would be dangerous to eat -- whether that's true or not.

[Valhalla]

Originally posted by Bill Fosher:

I tell them that I can't sell them a lamb because the flock was just medicated and the meat would be dangerous to eat -- whether that's true or not.

What a great idea, Bill!

[Shoofly]

I'm going to remember that one!

[jimahall]

Hmmm! My lambs are very deadly. Nice thought. What does your medication cause in humans? If I eat your lamb will I go blind? I will definetly have to remember this the next time some bum comes around looking for lambs. Thanks.

[Jordi44]

I had a Great Pyr, and he sure scared anyone that came to the house - and he was really a pushover - if you weren't afraid of him. He barked at anyone, though - so no one could sneak in. If you can't put a dog in a pasture, how about some geese? They sure make a racket if anyone comes onto their turf. At least it'd be enough to alert a dog at the house. One evening, my 2 geese were the first ones to catch someone that had pulled in and walked around the back looking for us - and that's with 3 dogs, all that were out at that time.

 

Like that medicated idea, but knock on wood, I haven't had a problem - but we're back off the road, you'd have to come up our lane to get to the gates, and I currently have 4 dogs - with at least one outside 95% of the time. Besides, I have 2 horses that would probably pester anyone and scare the bejeebers out of them.

[Jordi44]

On the plus side. In our area a while back, group of brilliant individuals got drunk (so I've heard) and decided to go butcher a cow. Well, they picked the wrong one. First it was a Holstein (sure knew a lot) and apparently they shot it at least twice with a cross bow (or arrow of some sort). Must have torn it up quite a bit just to cut a leg off (for the meat? Really brilliant, weren't they?). Anyhow, this heifer was of great bloodlines or something, is valued at $3500 - and now the guys are being sued by the owner for several times the value - think it was over $21,000, as well as facing criminal charges. Sure hope the guy gets every penny and then some - and that they throw away the key. Don't know who placed the value on the cow - normally, any time I or anyone I've known, has dealt with officials on livestock value, they tell you it's about $50 or so - but won't tell you where you can replace it for that. I'm so sick of the "livestock isn't worth anything" attitude. Makes you want to see all the producers stop sending to market and let all these city-slickers find out where their food really comes from. Sorry, I'll get off the soap box - it just gets me so worked up at the anti-ag attitude that abounds.