MLA ‘astonished’ by revelation that 14,500 cows have gone missing in NI in four years

UUP Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson Rosemary Barton, who obtained the information, has described the total as “astonishing”.

Mrs Barton had asked the Department of Agriculture to detail how many cattle have been stolen or reported missing, broken down by constituency, in each of the last four years.

The Department response said they did not differentiate between stolen or missing cows, but confirmed that 14,506 cattle had gone missing in the time period, according to the Department’s Animal and Public Information System (APHIS).

Mrs Barton said: “I was astounded when I received the figures back from DAERA that so many cattle had ‘disappeared’ from the Department’s official cattle recording system APHIS.

“The system does not differentiate between the number of cattle recorded as stolen and those that have gone missing from the system.

“Three Divisional Veterinary Centres (Newry, Armagh and Dungannon) account for 6,813 of the missing cattle alone.

“While I am certainly aware that a number of cattle are stolen each year, it would appear that many cattle are disappearing from the system, which may suggest that cattle are being sold, moved and slaughtered illegally.

“I intend to progress this query to try to establish what follow-up action DAERA takes in relation to these ‘disappeared’ animals, if they ever trace any of them and if the PSNI are involved in any investigations.”