A new initiative has been launched to fight one aspect of the rural crime epidemic - reducing the 'rising tide' of livestock thefts.
A Barnoldswick farmer is one of the first farmers to sign up to the new crime fighting initiative, 'Operation Bo Peep!'
It comes as news that a leading rural insurance company said the UK countryside 'is under siege' as a new wave of 'brazen thieves' target farms.
Gill McGarrell - a victim of rural crime herself - has joined the scheme, spearheaded by former senior police detective, John Minary, which centres around sheep being “protected” by a revolutionary marking system.
Together with signs advertising the TecTracer identification process positioned around farm buildings and fields - combined with an e-alert early warning system linked to the police, farms, abattoirs and auction houses – Mr Minary and his team believe these will be such a deterrent as to render the animals virtually theft proof.
TecTracer has been developed by York-based Trace-in-Metal, which pioneered a ground-breaking marking system to protect church roofs from lead thieves, and has now adapted its use for safeguarding livestock, in particular sheep.
Following the successful completion of a trial at hill farm near Whitby, the TecTracer team, with the backing of North Yorkshire Police, are rolling out Operation Bo Peep! Region-wide.
Coded markers
Whilst Trace-in-Metal uses ballistics to fire thousands of microdots into metal sheets “marking” them with a unique identifying code, TecTracer uses raddles to ingrain thousands of coded markers into the sheep’s fleece.
Once attached to the animal’s coat, it is easy to identify any sheep that has been marked, and which farm it originated from.
According to the NFU Mutual Rural Crime Report 2016, livestock rustling remains a huge problem, with costs stubbornly high in Northern Ireland and the North East and South West of England.
At a total cost to the UK of £2.9 million, 70 per cent came from these three regions alone.
Insurance claims showed that in Yorkshire alone the cost of rural crime last year was £3.6m, £100,000 more than in 2015.
And whilst in 2015 equine crime is down by a quarter, the cost of livestock theft has risen by seven per cent.
'Hellish problem'
Last month alone 60 lambs were taken from the Lofthouse area, whilst ten were stolen from a farm on the edge of Harrogate, at Beckwithshaw.
One sheep farmer from Barnoldswick was recently quoted as saying that sheep rustling was a “hellish problem”.
Mrs McGarrell said: “Sheep theft is a constant worry and, as the thieves become more brazen and resourceful, we need to ensure we have the weapons in our armoury to fight back!”
TecTracer director John Minary added: “The overall intention of Operation Bo Peep! is to make North Yorkshire a sheep theft free zone.
“It will provide reassurance to rural communities, and, by imposing a preventative ‘cocoon’ around farms and moorland, it will ceate a deterrent to organised and opportunist criminals.”
