Alex Easton MLA has expressed deep concern that 154 cattle have been stolen or gone missing over the last two years in the North Down and Ards area.
Speaking today Alex Easton MLA said:
“Unfortunately we cannot get the full picture with these figures as APHIS does not collate figures that differentiate between stolen or missing cattle. However between 2011/2012 we see that 66 cattle have been stolen or gone missing and that between 2012/2013 we see that 88 cattle have gone missing or have been stolen.”
“These figures are worrying not just to the farmer who will have lost money with either missing or stolen cattle, but also it is worrying that a government body does not hold accurate figures to explain the real picture of what is happening to our farmer’s cattle.”
“I am today calling on DARD to start to collate proper data so that we can get a proper picture of stolen and missing cattle. I would also call on the public who witness anything suspicious when driving in our countryside to report this to the PSNI. Our farmers are in many ways the back bone of our society, and they deserve to be protected both by the PSNI but also by DARD who have a role to collate proper data so we can see the full scale of the problem.”
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