A farmer in Cork told me she is “devastated” after discovering that eight of her Aberdeen Angus weanlings have been stolen. The farmer, who did want to be identified, said she made the discovery early on Monday morning.

“We left the cattle on Sunday evening after looking at them,” she said. “We came in early the next morning to check on the stock and we noticed that the barrier had been taken down and that cattle were running around. We did a headcount and noticed that eight of our weanlings were gone.”

She said the work in rearing the animals is greater than any financial loss.

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“These were our animals. We had reared [them] from birth – all our work had gone into them and it’s very disheartening to have them just taken from us,” she said.

The farmer indicated that CCTV on a neighbour’s premises is proving useful in attempting to identify the thieves. If you noticed a jeep and trailer in the Mallow region of Cork between midnight and 3am on Sunday night into Monday morning, then please make contact with Mallow garda station on 022-21105.

Cattle theft, or rustling, is unusual in Cork. There were no reported thefts in the county in 2014.