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Six sheep have been stolen from the Letterdise commonage, near Roundstone in Co Galway, farmer Michael Mannion told the Irish Farmers Journal.
He was gathering the sheep two weeks ago from the mountain for shearing, as he does every year, when he noticed that six were missing.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Mannion said that this is not the first time the sheep have gone missing.
“Two ewes with two lambs and two hoggets are gone missing. I have about 150 sheep, 130 ewes and 20 hoggets.
“The odd time an old ewe will go missing and we will find her remains, but these are only young sheep, six or seven years old. They have no reason to stray. We’ve been looking for them for the last two weeks. They have either been stolen or taken and dumped somewhere.
“We’ve searched the commonage and can’t find any trace of them,” he said.
The sheep aren’t the only ones to go missing on the commonage, which is open and not fenced. Six sheep belonging to another shareholder in the commonage have also gone missing recently.
"There’s a bit of [theft] going on in the last few years."
The ewes that have gone missing are all mountain breeds and will have an ID number on their tag of 0420409.
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