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A farmer from Shillelagh, Co Wicklow, suspects thieves of taking sheep from his farm during mid-November, 2020.
“Every year I buy in 1,800 store hoggets and fatten them over the winter months. While out drafting heavy hoggets in November I noticed a good few were missing,” Andy Foley told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“There were 60 missing from one group and 42 from another. I thought originally they may have broken out but after a couple of days searching it was clear they had been stolen.”
Shocking loss
Foley reported the theft to Gardaí in Wicklow where an investigation is ongoing.
“Finished hoggets are making €145 per head in the factory, so altogether the missing sheep are worth almost €15,000. The great price at the minute is an incentive to these people to go out and steal.
“There’s always a few sheep stolen here and there but I’d never heard of this many to be taken in one go. It’s a shocking loss and it makes me nervous to put hoggets back out in those fields again.”
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