Police hunt after £32k cattle thefts

Thieves stole £32,000 worth of cattle from farms, police have revealed.

Three Limosin, two Simmental and a British Blue cow were taken from fields near Blackburn in Aberdeenshire between June 27 and July 8.

A further 14 Charolais cows were stolen from land a short distance away, near Monymusk, on July 27.

All the cows have ear tags.

Police Scotland Inspector Jon Millar, the local inspector for Garioch, said: “We are appealing for any information on these incidents which may or may not be related.”

“While this type of crime is relatively rare in this area, the loss of cattle can have such a devastating and lasting impact on farmers and their families, and we are working with them and the wider farming community and industry to try and identify who is responsible and where the cattle have gone. It is believed the animals were herdedintoawaitingvehicle.”

The crimes happened a short distance away from a farm where a pedigree flock of heavily pregnant ewes were stolen from last year.

Up to 160,000 worth of pure bred Beltex ewes were taken from the field beside Kemnay.

At the time, farmer Rory Gregor, who built up his prized collection since he was a schoolboy, said he feared his life’sworkhadbeendestroyed.