Gardaí tracking cattle rustler gang after theft of €10,000 worth of livestock in West Cork

Gardaí have appealed to the public for assistance in tracking down a gang of cattle rustlers that stole eight animals worth over €10,000 from a remote farm in West Cork in the past week.

According to Gardai, the gang made off with five Friesian heifers and three Aberdeen Angus bullocks in the raid on the unoccupied outside farm at Aughadown between Skibbereen and Ballydehob.

The animals were taken from a slatted unit on the farm sometime between 6pm on Saturday November 12th and 10am on Tuesday November 15th when the farmer discovered the animals were missing.

According to a Garda source, there were over 50 animals held in various pens, so a selection process would have been necessary.

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“Whoever stole these animals would have had to do a bit of preparation beforehand in terms of sorting the animals in the various pens and picking the animals that they were going to take,” the source said.

“And they would have had to have either a jeep with a very big trailer or a small truck, so there was clearly a lot of planning going into this to ensure that it went off smoothly.”

The Garda source said that it was quite possible that the animals were being stolen to order as it seemed that the thieves knew exactly what they wanted in terms of heifers and bullocks.

“This was well-planned – they probably would have needed three fellows sorting out the animals before the truck or trailer arrived, a driver and maybe one or two lookouts to keep an eye out.”

According to the Garda source, there were a number of similar type cattle thefts in the Ballydehob and Schull areas around five years ago when animals were stolen from a number of farms.

“We followed up on a number of leads at the time and although no one was ever charged, the thefts stopped so this latest raid was a bit of a surprise development,” said the source.

Gardaí say that all the animals are tagged and traceable and they have appealed to anyone who hears of anyone being offered animals without proper paperwork to contact them.

They have also carried out door-to-door inquiries in the Aughadown area and have appealed to anyone who noticed any suspicious activity in the area recently to contact them.

“Whoever stole these animals would have to do a bit of scouting out in advance so we’d be anxious to hear from anyone who noticed anything suspicious in Aughadown over the past month or so.”

Anyone with any information that can assist gardaí is asked to contact Bantry Garda station on 027 20860, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.