Gardaí have arrested a 31-year-old man for questioning about cattle rustling after they recovered 18 cattle worth €30,000 stolen from a farm in west Cork last month.
Detectives arrested the man at about 5.30pm on Monday after 20 gardaí and some 15 Department of Agriculture inspectors spent the day searching a farm at Cappamore between Ballydehob and Skibbereen and found the 18 stolen Friesians.
The 12 Friesian heifers and six Friesian bulls had been stolen from Skibbereen farmer Brian Lawlor from a pen at his outside farm at Lakelands, about three kilometres on the other side of Skibbereen over the weekend of November 23rd/24th.
Gardaí worked closely with Department of Agriculture officials, who were able to identify the stolen cattle as they had been given new ear identification tags for dead animals.
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Gardaí also recovered the original tags from the stolen cattle.
A Department of Agriculture source said: “The gardaí also got tags in a shed that match animals that were stolen two years ago so we’re doing DNA on all 284 cattle we found here – 105 cows, 47 heifers that are 12 months or more, 43 animals less than 12 months and 89 steers as well.
“We’re coming across animals that are older than they are registered, and we now think over 50 cattle could be stolen, so we are doing DNA testing on all of them to try and identify the animals because it looks like false tags have been issued for more than just those stolen a fortnight ago.”
Gardaí also recovered two balaclavas from a vehicle at the farm, and these have been removed by Garda technical experts for forensic examination.
The suspect was arrested on suspicion of theft and fraud offences and taken to Bandon Garda station where he is detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows gardaí detain suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be charged or released.
The 18 stolen Friesians have been returned to their owner, Mr Lawlor.
Speaking immediately after the theft of the animals, Mr Lawlor, who milks about 200 cows, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the stolen animals were all aged between 12 months and 14 months and that they were worth about €30,000.
