Cattle rustling is on the rise again throughout the wild, wild west; it’s growing popularity in sync with America’s seemingly unstoppable meth and heroin problem.
In fact, according to “cowboy cops” trying to lasso the mostly young, drug-addicted thieves stealing cows and steers to support their habits, it’s easy money.
Rustling is “low risk, high reward, really," according to special ranger John Cummings, who polices agricultural crimes for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
That accounts for over 4000 livestock thefts this year already, a costly crime spree driving many small farmers and even some big ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma to the brink of ruin now.
Officer Cummings says many of the perpetrators he’s hunting down or apprehended are youthful offenders corralling neighbors’ calves which haven’t been branded yet and whose market value has skyrocketed in 2015.
These smaller animals are also ideal targets, he explains, because “sometimes they’ve got no brands, no ear tags, nothing,” which makes them “easier to steal physically” and “because they are not marked and are hard to identify,” just as easy to sell “without detection."
Usually rustling involves only a few cattle at a time, and it’s not uncommon that they’re then sold locally for narcotics and/or alcohol, with no cash ever exchanging hands.
But, after awhile, such *nickel-and-diming* begins adding up, inflicting serious economic hardship on victims, not to mention that it's fueling the nation’s runaway drug and overdose epidemic.
Worse, as many small farmers fold as a result, some cattle rustlers aren’t bothering anymore with operations that raise and breed only 50 head or less.
In one recent case, for instance, over 1000 cows were taken from an mega-ranch run by a Texas fast food chain. A case generally regarded by the industry as the mother of all cattle heists.
Eponymous Rox
#WeirdCrime
