Cow butchered by thieves in Sask. farmer's field

A Saskatchewan farmer woke up to a gruesomeandunexpected sightWednesday morning.

During the night, someone had trespassedonto RoyGoodwin'sfarm, west of Weyburn, and guttedone of his pregnant cows.

All that was left of the animal when heventured outwas thecarcass. The cow had been butchered and strippedof its meat.

Goodwin said the culprits had a plan.

They came prepared.- Roy Goodwin

"They came prepared. They have done it before and they will do it again," said Goodwin."This crime did not happen in the middle of nowhere, there are fivehouses within a half mile of where the bred cow was slaughtered."

Goodwinexplainedthathe has heard of it happening before in the area, but this is the first time he has experienced it.

According to William Brown, the Department Head ofBioresource Policy, Business and Economics at the University of Saskatchewan,crimes like this might be the cause of people trying to save money.

Soaring beef prices

"The reason for all of this is that the price of beef is quite high these days and so the cattle market is quite high,that's probably the reason people are looking to save money,"said Brown.

The branding system used by farmers has made it almost impossible to sell stolen cattle.

But Brownsaidthat there is an alternative. He thinks that there is a black market for cattle, and that it goes directly to individuals rather than licensed businesses.

"Any of thegrocerystores or any legitimate store in Saskatchewanwould not normally bebuyingmeat from thesekinds of individuals.They would be buying it fromregisteredsuppliers."

He has also heard of incidents, like the one that took place on Goodwin'sfarm on Wednesday happening in Alberta in the past few months and in the U.S..

"Judging from the picture I saw, it looked like a fairly complete slaughter and dissecting and that would be very difficult to do with one person. In fact next to impossible on the ground and everything," said Brown.

"I would expect itwas more than one person and probably they had some kind of machinewhere they could kill theanimal and then hang it to cut the meat off and so on. "

This past summer, at least nine counties in Alberta declaredstates of agriculturaldisaster due to weather.

...they had some kind of machinewhere they could kill theanimal and then hang it to cut the meat off.- William Brown

Although consumers may not yet be experiencing severe price jumps in supermarkets, it is expected that the cost of cattle will continue to rise throughout the year.

The culprit(s) also left the gate open on the Goodwin farm, which led to several cattle being let out.

Goodwin is offering a $1,000 cash reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the cow's killing.

The incident hasbeen reported to the RCMP.