By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Although cattle rustlers are no longer hung in the state of Colorado, the penalty is still pretty high for people who are convicted of stealing cattle.
Yet, in Western Colorado, in a story that sounds as if it came right out of John Dutton’s Yellowstone, about 200 head of mostly this year’s calves appear to have been stolen in a major financial loss to ranchers.
Cattle rustling is defined as knowingly killing, selling, driving, leading or driving away with cattle that don’t belong to a person, or knowingly purchasing cattle from someone who doesn’t have the legal right to sell them.
Western Colorado sheriffs from Montrose, Delta and San Miguel Counties are looking for what they believe to be modern-day cattle rustlers, without the benefit of help from The Yellowstone’s Rip Wheeler.
According to Sgt. Chuck Searcy of the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office, most of the stolen/missing cattle are 6- to 9-month-old calves that were on federal grazing allotments on the Uncompahgre Plateau, between 25 Mesa and the Transfer Road.
On Wednesday of this week, producers, brand inspectors and law enforcement from Montrose and Delta counties met in Montrose to discuss the issue.
“We’re gathering evidence and information right now and we’re in the initial phases of investigation; so far, no calves have been reported found from these losses,” reads a post on the Department of Agriculture’s Facebook page.
Searcy says the sheriff’s office first became aware of the missing cattle this past week, after local area ranchers reported them missing to the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s brand inspectors’ division.
In a meeting with all three sheriffs and ranch owners that had reported missing cattle, there are several indicators that this many calves have not simply gotten lost or died without the owners knowing, which is something that every rancher experiences from time to time. At this time, law enforcement is not identifying the names of the ranchers (victims) who have reported cattle missing.
When ranchers gather their cattle from their summer grazing lots, it’s not uncommon to find that there is an average of a 2% loss, while the cattle are brought off the mountain and counted. In this case that would be four calves, not 200 calves.
In addition to that suspect number of calves, it is also considered suspicious that most of those calves were missing from the same general area.
Searcy expects that there may be more cattle reported missing, as some of the ranchers in the meeting held by law enforcement said they knew other ranchers who had not yet reported their losses.
Delta County Sheriff Mark Taylor says he is not aware of any cattle missing from Delta County ranchers at this time, but since there is suspicious activity in the area, he wants ranchers in the area to be aware and keep a close eye on their livestock.
“In this day and age, everyone has a cell phone with a camera. If something looks suspicious, take photos of vehicles, license plates and report your photos and detailed descriptions of people and vehicles to the local sheriff,” Taylor said. “We do not want people confronting anyone, but reporting suspicious activity helps us stop people who do these kinds of things.”
Searcy estimates that the ranchers have “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in loss. He also said that all the missing calves have been branded and that the Department of Agriculture has notified the surrounding states to be on the lookout for the stolen livestock.
Colorado has 68 brand inspectors throughout 64 counties, and when livestock is reported missing they are issued to all law enforcement organizations around the state and to area sale barns. It’s kind of like the wanted list at a post office, and not so different from the wanted posters issued in the Old West when hanging cattle rustlers was the legal remedy for stealing cows.
Multiple posts on Facebook from the Department of Agriculture added that, in addition to community awareness, the brand inspection program is the main defense against these incidents. The program has been a part of the region since before Colorado was a state.
Cattle rustling is a Class 4 felony and, if convicted, a person would serve a jail sentence and pay fines. If cattle are taken across state lines, it becomes a federal crime and would be charged accordingly.