A Highland Perthshire farmer has been left “devastated” after six ewes and 11 lambs were callously stolen from his land.
Shepherd Alastair Kininmonth revealed his livestock were taken under the cover of darkness just 500 yards from where he and wife Angela live.
The theft happened on Kinnighallen Farm at Fortingall, just west of Aberfeldy, on Monday night with local concerns raised that two men in a blue van were seen scoping the area in the days before are those responsible.
The 69-year-old has worked on the farm, which keeps around 200 ewes, his whole life and took over from his father 33 years ago.
But the sheep herder has never witnessed a theft on this scale from his land before.
Speaking to the PA he explained: “Usually the lambs are about a day old and are moved into the next field, so it makes it easier to keep count of them.
“We have 16 ewes and 27 lambs [in the birthing field] and we feed them in the morning.
“Then on Tuesday morning we went along to find six ewes and 11 lambs were missing.
“We went down and round the fencing then checked the rivers and meadows to see if they had managed to escape.
“When we knew they hadn’t we reported it to the police.
“But whoever took the sheep would have to use a livestock trailer, definitely.
“They would have pulled their trailer up to the gate and lifted the lambs in and the ewes would have followed.”
He added: “The lambs cost at least £100 per life so it would be over £1,700 I have lost.
“We are devastated. It is total devastation. It is not just the cost - all the ewes stolen we have brought up from lambs and we looked after them all their lives.
“It is enough to bring a farmer to tears.”
Alastair has put measures in place to ensure a livestock theft does not happen again.
“Since this happened I have a friend who has a camera to watch the livestock,” he said.
“And she has set it up on the single track road into the farm as cars have to come up that way.
“There has been two men in a blue van going about recently.
“Everybody local knows about it.
“They appeared to be more interested in people’s dogs I thought.
“Maybe they [the culprits] are taking the sheep away to sell them in August or it is someone with two or three acres of ground and has no stock.
“Then they rear them themselves and take the lambs to market once the ewes have given birth.
“We hope that the camera will work and that other farmers know what is happening in the area.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “On Tuesday we received a report of the theft of sheep from a field near Fortingall, Aberfeldy, that happened overnight.
“Inquiries are ongoing.”
