Cow Cop

 There’s an old expression “till the cows come home” which means a very long time. In all too many cases in Idaho, the cows never come home. Cattle ranching is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States and cattle theft is a small but growing problem as the recession deepens and thieves realize that stealing cows is a relatively easy way to raise a quick buck. Most cattle thieves work alone or in small teams rather than as part of organized crime syndicates. Stolen cattle are often loaded onto trailers and taken straight from their farm or ranch to auction at a stockyard, according to detectives involved in tracking thefts.

Identifying those cattle is not easy since many are not branded and detectives and owners need to act fast to retrieve the animals before sale -- a task made doubly difficult if they have been transported across state lines.

State brand inspector Larry Hayhurst says the public can become involved and can be very helpful: “Idaho is getting more urbanized by the minute and you got people running all over. We need all the eyes and ears and the public to be aware of things that are odd. If an ISP trooper sees a goose-neck trailer going down the road at 2:30 in the morning, you ought to pay attention to what’s going on, why is that person there, those kinds of things like that to help with some of those problems.”