How many “predator killed” cattle were actually stolen?
We all know the story — the “horrible wolves killed the cattle. They were so hungry that not even a piece of bone was left as evidence.” The same has been said of cougar and bear.
In the many years I have roamed the range, I often travel in my truck for a day on backroads and see no one, lots of cattle, but no person, certainly not someone who might watch after them. If I had a big truck (or better a trailer to haul a few) and a friend, we could round up a few and drive off with little fear.
The old joke is that lots of cattle owners with public land grazing permits to remote areas employ the “Christopher Columbus method of herding” — turn them loose in May and ‘discover’ them in October.” In meantime, a month or more may pass with no one checking the cattle. As a result, some fail to be discovered and others, figures not released, are rustled. Cattle owners have a strong incentive not to talk much about rustling. First of all, it will give those with a tendency towards such criminal acts incentive to do it because they hear how easy it is. Secondly, if they blame predators, they might get compensation through some public or private program.
The introduction of microchips in cattle might reduce the incidence of rustling and provide some figures on how common it is. If there were more actual cowboys out with the cattle, all kinds of bad things that happen to them would decline. But then, owner’s economic calculations probably say that their losses are not great enough to pay a cowboy or two.
KTVB television just did a much needed story on the matter of rustling in Idaho. Cattle rustling in Idaho on the rise. By Natalie Podgorski. KTVB television. Channel 7.
via How many cattle in Idaho are rustled? | The Wildlife News.