500 cows rustled from New Zealand farm in unusual crime

The farmer involved is feeling too sheepish to talk about what happened, according to his friend, who saud he muct have lost NZ$750,000. - or nearly Dh2 million.

Cows in a pen before being milked on a dairy farm near Carterton, New Zealand. New Zealand police were on August 30, 2016 investigating reports of the possible theft of 500 cows at a South Island farm. Nick Perry/AP PhotoShow less

WELLINGTON // How do you steal 500 cows? Probably not all at once, according to New Zealand police.

Authorities said on Tuesday that they were investigating reports of the unusual crime at a South Island farm.

Locals said they had never before heard of cattle rustling on such a massive scale.

And this is in a nation that is home to some 10 million cows – more than double the number of people.

The farmer involved is feeling too sheepish to talk about what happened, according to friend Willy Leferink.

“He’s absolutely gobsmacked, and deeply embarrassed,” Mr Leferink said. “If you had three-quarters of a million dollars go missing, you wouldn’t want to talk about it either.”

Mr Leferink said each milking cow was worth about 1,500 New Zealand dollars (Dh3,980) and weighed more than half a ton. He said the cows could have been taken from the herd of 1,300 near the town of Ashburton anytime between early July, when they were last counted, and late August.

He said the cows were not being milked because it was winter, but the farmer did notice they were not chewing through as much feed as normal.

Police said the incident came as a reminder to farmers that they should be checking their fences and counting their stock regularly.

“It’s unlikely the theft of hundreds of animals could be completed at once, and is more likely that multiple thefts could be carried out over a period of time,” Senior Sgt Scott Banfield said.

Mr Leferink said a trailer-truck would need to be loaded 13 times over to move all the cattle.

“There have to be a number of people involved,” he said. “That’s the biggest chance we have, of somebody cracking at some stage.”

He said the thieves would face a tough time trying to fence the cows, because each one comes with an electronic identification tag in its ear. The tags could be removed though, he said, but an honest dealer would not buy a cow without a tag.

Mr Leferink said farmers can sometimes be relaxed about security.

“They’re good-natured and haven’t got evil thoughts in them,” he said. “This is very hard to deal with.”

* Associated Press