Sheep Across Britain Stolen And Shipped Abroad On The Black Market

Police are speculating that sheep rustling across Britain has risen by a massive 80%.

The number of sheep stolen by organised gangs who ship the animals on to the black market has increased.

The criminals are sending the livestock to foreign countries for £100 each but whether they are shipping to India or Spain, it is bad news for UK farmers. Theft of livestock in 2011 alone cost farmers across England, Scotland and Wales more than £5 million.

It is reported that since January this year, almost 33,000 sheep have been pinched from farms across Britain and the situation is getting out of control.

Incidents of farm animals going missing has never been on such as scale which indicates that the gangs are using large vehicles to transport them out of the region and loaded on ships bound for Europe or beyond to shipping to USA.

The rocked farming community are hoping that butchers and suppliers will come forward with information, as they know exactly where their meat comes from. Therefore if some sheep have been shipping to Australia, the butchers there will report that it came from the UK.

Livestock rustling has been historically low in the last decade whilst thieves concentrated on stealing tractors, power tools and quad bikes but it is claimed that high meat prices has led to the surge in animal robbery. The majority of rustling involves sheep but cows are also being stolen for personal food and butchery.

Hopefully the situation resolves itself before it gets too baaaaad.