By Peter Worden

Cattle rustling, to most of us, may be something that happens only in old westerns or the stuff of science fiction. But to cattlemen and ranchers in southern Alberta, it is has always been part of real life.

Photo by Neville Palmer

Rural legends come farther-fetched than their urban counterparts, and usually have to do with cows. Take, for example, unexplained mutilations of cattle, unsubstantiated claims of abductions by aliens for dissection, and not-so disturbing, yet equally mysterious, boasts of cow tipping – the artful yet unproven lore of pushing over a sleeping animal.

No doubt like countless tales, it originates from (or is at least perpetuated by) an ex-rancher on his seventh-or-so Busch Light, and is, therefore, as credible as one prefers to give credit. It is: That somewhere in the unpatrolled vastness of southern Alberta’s ranchland, an organized cattle rustling ring operates a makeshift abattoir – a refrigerated RV – no longer making off with live cattle but boldly butchering them there on the spot.

Like something out of Hardy Boys series, a little classic sleuth work was needed to investigate this new form of cattle rustling, which itself is as old and familiar as barbed wire on the Prairies.

“It’s so easy nowadays,” said Dan Nelson, a rancher near Mountain View. In his opinion there is more rustling than ever. “In places it is going on more – small calves especially.”

Nelson has had cattle certifiably rustled in the past. One year with 300 head, four disappeared. Missing cattle often remain an unsolved mystery considering the threat of bears, wolves, cougars and a well-known bovine propensity to simply not come home. But in this case, one of Dan’s calves came through the sale ring a year later.

“You sort of read between the lines,” he said. “Some ranchers if they’re not too trustworthy will pick cattle off another herd and add it to theirs before branding.”

Ryan Royea works for T&L Cattle, a 1,000-head operation in Nanton. “It is very likely when you’ve got land all over the place,” he said on the likelihood the couple of cattle he loses every year are thanks to rustlers. “How easy is it – there’s no one to stop you.”

Even branded cattle are fair game for a rustler who’s only after the meat.

“They’ll shoot them late at night,” said Nelson, “that’s done quite often. Sometimes you find just a head and a gut pile. You get someone who’s good at butchering and they can have an animal shot and dressed in 15 minutes.”

Cattle disappearances are the stuff of rural legends. A single set of tire tracks backing on to a field. A full-grown animal is worth $1,500, and with upwards of 14 years in prison under the Criminal Code (if caught) cattle rustling is akin to grand theft auto in scale. There are, in fact, legal, inspected, mobile abattoirs in Alberta. Perhaps this is how the rural legend of a refrigerated RV rustling contraption managed to take hold. A much trustier source however, basic rationale, shows this claim (while not impossible) not feasible either. A contraption of such a sort would be clumsy and easy to find. The traceability and the risk of jail along with the financial margin having to justify such an elaborate setup, makes it highly improbable. The RCMP has never encountered such a thing. Plus, who is buying all this uninspected, unmarked meat?

So back at square one, the big question remains, are Alberta cattle stocked and stolen while unlucky ranchers take their hats off for the night?

“The short answer is ‘no’,” said David Moss, an inspector with Livestock Investigation Services (LIS) refuting both the RV myth and that there’s more cattle rustling than ever. “More in a sense of volume? No. Dollar amounts maybe.”

Moss says he deals more with high-value scenarios (in the millions of dollars) such as the trading of fraudulent ‘paper cattle’ at auctions and feedlots.

“Cattle rustling is no longer this guy with a bandana riding a horse. It is agri-crime.”

To combat new tech-savvy rustling tactics LIS has a database with 100 million records and 100 inspectors across Alberta at all major hubs of activity. These measures might make the half-drunken ramblings of an ex-rancher that much less believable, but it doesn’t make cattle rustling any less prevalent nowadays, or any less weird.

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