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Thieves took 26 lambs in mid-September and came back for the remaining 20 last week, sheep farmer Enda Ward told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Originally from Donegal town, Ward rents land in Ballymahon, Co Longford, where he runs a flock of 500 mountain store lambs.
“At first we thought the stores might have broken out, there is wild land bordering my fields which they could have wandered off into,” Ward explained.
“I spent two full days searching but there was no sign of them, like they had completely vanished. A couple of days later the remaining 20 were stolen from the same field, I knew then we were dealing with something more serious.”
Alarm bells
Weighing between 35-40kg, Ward suspects the lambs will be soon sent for slaughter.
“The lambs were tagged but no doubt these will be swapped out. I’ve contacted the local factories to make them aware of the tag numbers in case they happen to show up,” Ward said.
“There are two entries to the field where the lambs were kept with a house on each road so the theft took place at night. No way could the thieves have got in during the day without raising alarm bells with the neighbours.”
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