Cattle Duffing will rise
Cattle duffing has been around since the days of Captain Starlight
Cattle prices at an all-time high now is the time to be on the lookout for cattle duffers.
Cattle duffing stories, and tales of thieves praised as heroes, have been told around the camp fires on many occasions.
Cattle duffing has been around since the days of Captain Starlight
A story has just landed from Texas (USA)
Record beef prices have led to increases in the number of missing or stolen cattle.
The nearly 5,800 livestock reported stolen in Texas last year was the most in five years. And the value of the animals — more than $5.7 million — was the most in a decade.
The Texas and South-western Cattle Raisers Association sees the trend this year much the same. The nearly 140-year-old association has a team of 30 Special Rangers that investigates thefts covering 76 million acres in Texas and Oklahoma.
The executive director of law enforcement for the organization, Larry Gray, says any time the price of a commodity goes up, the theft of that commodity also rises.
Through July this year, the Special Rangers have worked nearly 400 theft cases.
In Australia minimum fines for a range of stock offences have now increased from $200 to $1100 per animal, or the value of the animal if it is higher.
Other new laws aim to deter thieves from their greedy ways while giving courts more power to help graziers get their stock back
The court can order stock to be returned when it strays onto a person's property and the land owner has refused to move it.
Police can now dispose of stock in criminal proceedings instead of paying to keep stock as a visual evidence record for a court.
