While the police were on the scene on the Verena Road they also charged a person with negligent use of a firearm.
The police patrol drove out to Verena on June 22 to follow up on a report of cattle that was stolen from a local farm. Apparently the owner of the cattle did a head count on June 20 and two days later when he returned from business three cattle where missing from the grazing camp. He also told police that he found pieces of intestine on the scene. It is suspected that the cattle were slaughtered.
Another case of stock theft was reported at the Witbank SAPS. The owner of a number of pigs found two of his animals were stolen, and a third was left in the pen with serious injuries. He apparently told police that he heard a noise outside his house in Spring Valley at about 23:00. He was hesitant to go outside and check fearing the burglars might be armed. A couple of hours later he went to inspect the pen and found two of his pigs gone and a third injured. The owner contacted the police on June 24 first thing the following morning.
These may seem like isolated incidents but stock theft is a real threat especially in surrounding areas such as Verena, and Balmoral. According to crime stats SA over 2582 stock theft crimes were reported in Mpumalanga in 2014.
When stock theft syndicates are tracked down the SPCA would assist the police in the raids to inspect the condition of the animal and euthanize animals in some cases where the animals have been extremely mistreated. In September 2014 the SPCA and investigators found half a dozen starving cattle with cut ligaments to prevent them from running away in an open field near the road to Verena. A farm worker stumbled upon the syndicate hideout and contacted the police. The cattle were all euthanized.
Captain Eddie Hall from the Witbank SAPS said that the meat that is sold is easily worth several thousand rand. Farmers go to great lengths to protect their valuable livestock like tagging them so that they can be identified. Companies like Safe Tag specialize in providing this service.
In Kenya a major project has been put into motion to place GPS tracking devices in cattle says Biztechafrica.com. Although nothing on a nation wide scale has been implemented in South Africa yet, smaller companies do offer GPS tracking systems for livestock and game.
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