Police are appealing for information and urging rural residents to be vigilant after ten lambs were stolen from a field near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Some time in the last week, the ten Texel lambs were taken from a property on the B6161 Otley Road near Beckwithshaw.
They were not tagged or marked.
North Yorkshire police has urged anyone with information to come forward.
Inspector Jon Grainge, of North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Taskforce, said: “Over recent years, North Yorkshire Police and surrounding rural forces have taken an increasing number of reports relating to the theft of sheep.
“The Rural Taskforce has been focusing on this problem, and we have identified that sheep have been stolen, often in ones and twos, sometimes in trailer-loads.
“Some will be destined almost immediately for the illegal meat trade, while others are ‘hidden’ in open view in fields and barns across a wide geographic area.
“The difficulty with the nature of this crime is that it is not necessarily immediately obvious to farmers, who may only be able to identify their shortfall at the time of bringing sheep in to scan or to worm, which often gives a very wide timeframe for us to work with.”
The rise in sheep rustling
This week, 37 Texel sheep were stolen from a farm near Darlington, County Durham.
Indeed, according to the NFU Mutual Rural Crime Report 2016, livestock rustling remains a problem with a total cost to the UK of £2.9 million a year.
The worrying problem is highlighted even more as a survey released in May showed 56% of respondents have been a victim of rural crime in the past 12 months.
This recent increase in rural crime has spurred on the NFU to ask Government and the Home Office to ensure increased and fairer funding for rural policing.
Farmers and their families in some parts of the country have been victims of arson, vandalism and burglary with many farmers experiencing intimidation and threats of violence.
If you have any information please call North Yorkshire Police on 101 and quote reference number NYP-16072017-0428.
