[Mel]

I cannot be sure of the breed until tomorrow,but I have just been told a keeper near Islip Northants and one other near Woodford Northants have had all their pigs stolen within the last 3 days.

I do know,one was had chains and padlocks on the gate,these were cut off.All the sheep were left from one field just the pigs taken.

Please please double up your security!!

[Mel]

I cannot be sure of the breed until tomorrow,but I have just been told a keeper near Islip Northants and one other near Woodford Northants have had all their pigs stolen within the last 3 days.

I do know,one was had chains and padlocks on the gate,these were cut off.All the sheep were left from one field just the pigs taken.

Please please double up your security!!

The first lot stolen were GOS!

[robert waddell]

well that will be the stuffing for the xmas turkeys 

[Sylvia]

Bad luck to whoever stole them I suppose they will be killed by them as someone could circulate the ear tag numbers to abbatoirs.

[Fowgill Farm]

Leghorn. hope you don't mind but have copied this to GOS forum too. We too in North Yorkshire have had a fair bit of rustling mainly horses & sheep.  The sheer quantity of sheep stolen, suggests the thieves must have an abbattoir and butcher in on this somewhere. The meat must end up on markets or thro back doors.
Mandy 

[feldar]

This is very worrying a friend of ours near Ringwood had her two orphan lambs stolen earlier in the year and they were killed by the thieves. they were then dumped at the side of the road, the police think it was because they were disturbed whilst trying to butcher them into manageable pieces to be parceled out to other people. They were killed by multiple blows to the head and neck absolutely horrific. my friend a seasoned farmer with a sustantial herd of cattle was devestated by the sheer brutality of it all.

[Barrett]

That is really bad news, thieving little sods, I live down south you do hear of it from time to time one guy I new had the pigs, electric fence and the electrifier also took his bins of pig food, I did tell him he needs to sleep a bit lighter he didn't find it funny .  The lamb story is terrible there some evil git's in the world, I fear though that as the economy gets worse those of us that have livestock may continue to be targeted as it is a means of food and income.

[violet]

That is really awful.  

Food and Fuel - we're having thefts up here in the highlands.
It's awful. Having to lock everything, when this use to be the sort of place where you could leave your doors and cars open.

Nothing living yet. Pork out of my freezer & friends household fuel.

[Mel]

It is a pain I have to say,you have to go through three field gates all now securely shackled with tamper proof padlocks and padlocks on the latches as well,all my runs are padlocked up,it took me ages to get to feed mine this morning,but I am not taking any chances!

My local gamekeeper is coming over this afternoon,he shall update me on everything.-I know one of the owners is in a murderous rage at the moment...uhoh!

[Mel]

Leghorn. hope you don't mind but have copied this to GOS forum too. We too in North Yorkshire have had a fair bit of rustling mainly horses & sheep.  The sheer quantity of sheep stolen, suggests the thieves must have an abbattoir and butcher in on this somewhere. The meat must end up on markets or thro back doors.
Mandy 

That is perfectly fine Mandy,spread the word,hopefully it may help some owners!
Mel

[Roxy]

Times are hard, and nothing is safe any more.

If they want to take my Kune kunes they will have to get them past the llama ....and there is no chance.  He will run into the burglars and knock them over.  Even if they got the pigs, the racket they would make, would waken the neighbour across the lane!!

[ambriel]

It is a worrying trend, this resurgence of rustling. Definitely time I got that application for a shotgun license sent off, I think.

As with some of you others, we live in a very remote area where locked doors are by far the exception rather than the rule. It'd be a shame to see that chance.

I was listening to a program on the wireless the other morning and they were talking about food prices and how the cost of meat is expected to sky-rocket over the next decade or so, turning meat back into the luxury food it once was.

[Mel]

To update.

One owner has had 7 GOS stolen,another has had 11 Tamworths and now one other has had 6 middle whites taken,all within 7 days and all in the Northamptonshire area!All were marked one way or the other.

What I have heard from one owner is that they took the main gate off of it's hinges and cut through the locks with a petrol disc cutter! took another gate down some 500 yards further up the field-this field is also adjacent to a main rod!

However,the owner whom had the GOS stolen has been told that around a fortnight ago some people we asking questions to a local about whom owned the field-he did not seem to see it as a problem then,not until the pigs went missing.He has said they were three men in a large white van whom spoke in what he believes as Polish.-or most certainly European.

[Eve]

So the brains behind it all get someone else to do their dirty work, so that they can hide behind 'language issues' when found out. Or the claim of "people who spoke European"  is a decoy. Hadn't thought of putting a chain around the hinges of a gate, might just do that, anything to hold thieves up. I like the idea of a llama as a guard dog 

There's been a lot of theft of machinery around here. But two weeks ago, some &*!% broke into sheds on an allotment and used the garden tools they found to go on a killing spree, slaughtering 20-odd chickens. 

[Mel]

That is sick mindedness! Why would they do such a thing........killing the chickens.sick and twisted..

We have had a lot of machinery and metal thefts here,it is rife,some 3 weeks ago they cut all the heavy duty electric cables from the post office in Barnwell! Nothing is safe anymore!