Cattle rustlers still roam the ranges
Ever since people have been raising cattle, other people have tried to steal them
"I mean, they used to hang rustlers ... Unfortunately, we can't do that anymore."
They don't hang 'em high out west — not anymore — but cattle rustlers still roam the ranges of B.C., infuriating ranchers who say the poachers are likely driven up the soaring price of beef.
At the Coldstream Ranch near Vernon, rustlers have illegally shot and killed at least three cows in the last two weeks alone; another was shot over the summer. Some were apparently butchered for meat, their hindquarters carved off and removed, while the rest of the carcass was left on the side of the road to rot.
"Actually shooting something, and quartering it up, when they damn well know it's not theirs, it just kind of floored me," said Brad McKim, Coldstream Ranch's general manager.
"They're low-life's and I hope they get caught."
Ever since people have been raising cattle, other people have tried to steal them, said Kevin Boon, general manager of the B.C. Cattlemen's Association.
"We have losses every year, to what I call two-legged predators," Boon said.
"I mean, they used to hang rustlers ... Unfortunately, we can't do that anymore."
In Dawson Creek, three men are each currently facing multiple criminal charges stemming from the alleged illegal killing and butchering of three calves in a nearby community pasture in July.
Like other criminal enterprises, cattle rustling is influenced by economic factors. Stakes are higher when the price of steak is sizzling.
"When the price goes up, we see it reported more," Boon said. "And our price of beef has really soared the last two years,
"When the prices are higher, it becomes more attractive, and you see (rustlers) be more creative and more organized in it."
It's difficult to keep exact numbers on cattle rustling because other factors contribute to cattle loss every year, such as sickness, predation by wolves and accidents, Boon said from the BCCA office in Kamloops.
The butchered carcasses in Coldstream represent the most visible example of cattle theft, he said, but there are also more sophisticated examples of rustlers stealing several live cattle from a ranch, re-branding them, and selling the beef on the black market.
"Back when they were first settling this country, rustling was probably a lot more prevalent in those days," he said. "But actually, in modern times, it's become a lot easier in some ways.
"A guy can pull into someone's pasture in a remote area and can have 10 cattle loaded in the back of the trailer and gone in a matter of minutes."
The cattlemen's association offers their own $2,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of any cattle rustlers, and Boon said he knows of at least "a couple of cases this year where there's maybe an opportunity to give (the reward) out again."
BY DAN FUMANO, THE PROVINCE
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