Police continue to search for the people who stole more than 1,500 sheep from two farms in Manitoba.
Norman Goulet, who farms near St. Claude in central Manitoba, had about 1,200 lambs and ewes stolen from his farm during the Labour Day weekend. On Sept. 5, it was discovered that 309 lambs and 55 ewes were also missing from his parents’ farm.
Goulet estimated the sheep were worth about $200,000.
“They got to have nerve,” he said, noting the heist would have taken at least a few people and trucks towing fairly large livestock trailers. “It’s almost scary to think what these people would do if you walked in on them. They’re not afraid of nothing, I wouldn’t think.”
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Goulet had assembled 1,198 lambs and ewes in a corral on the long weekend in preparation to trim their hoofs. When he visited the pasture the morning of Sept. 4, he discovered the animals were gone and notified police.
The thieves had driven across a hay field and cut a hole in a fence to reach the corrals.
“It was fairly well planned, I think,” Goulet said. “They had done their homework. They had checked things out pretty darned good.”
His parents had been away that weekend. A count of their sheep on Sept. 5 revealed that they had also been robbed.
Searching for clues
RCMP late last week were still investigating and no arrests had been made.
“We’re looking at more than only a couple of guys,” said const. Nicolas Morisset of the Pembina Valley RCMP detachment in a Sept. 9 interview. “It had to be well organized and it’s something they planned well in advance.
“There’s not too many trucks that could do it with only two loads. We could be looking at two trucks or we could be looking at five. We don’t know at this point.”
Goulet said he was left with 554 ewes and 185 lambs. The thefts came at a time of good prices for lambs and ewes.
His parents’ sheep did not have ear tags or other easy means of distinguishing them from other sheep. There were v-shaped notches in the left ear of 200 of Goulet’s lambs, animals he planned to keep as replacement females.
At least 150 of the ewes stolen from his farm had been imported from North Dakota over the past few years and were tattooed in their right ears and had North Dakota state health tags.
Strangers and unfamiliar vehicles have been noted in the area this summer. One neighbour spotted three men with binoculars looking over Goulet’s sheep from a distance, but thought nothing of it until after word of the robberies spread.
One possibility is that the sheep were hauled east into Ontario, Goulet said. That is where a lot of sheep slaughter and processing is done.
This was not the first time Goulet has been the victim of sheep bandits. Last winter, 110 sheep were stolen from his feedlot and 160 went missing from his parents’ farm. About another 100 head disappeared from a farm in the Rathwell area, which is a short distance west of St. Claude.
Goulet said those sheep were never recovered.
Anyone with information about the latest thefts can contact the Carman community office of the RCMP at 204-745-6760 or Manitoba Crime Stoppers at 800-782-8477.
