Police have launched a new awareness campaign to encourage residents and countryside visitors to help fight rural crime and livestock theft in Dartmoor and cross Devon.
Leading rural insurer NFU Mutual is joining forces with Devon and Cornwall Police to fund the Devon Livestock Initiative, in response to ongoing regular thefts of sheep in remote areas such as Dartmoor.
The project’s key aim is to encourage people to report suspicious activity to local farmers when they are out and about in the countryside.
It is initially being launched on parts of Dartmoor and if successful it’ll be rolled out across Devon and Cornwall where farmers and parishes have theft concerns and would like an opportunity to work together.
The Devon Livestock Initiative will provide farmers with gate signs which include the times that stock are normally moved and ask members of the public who see sheep being moved outside these times, to call a displayed phone number for a local farmer or the police on 101.
The initiative is part of a wider project being run to trial a range of security measures to prevent and detect livestock theft.
PC Martin Beck of the Devon & Cornwall Police Rural Crime Team, said: ‘The signage campaign is not just about the farmers, it is as much for those in our communities who live, work and pass our farms every day.
‘We will be contacting parish councils and visiting other groups and community leaders in those pilot areas to help spread the word on how we can prevent theft together.
‘Letting people know about the signs and helping them understand more about farming in their local areas can really make a difference in reducing and preventing theft.
‘We want to help educate people. Some thefts take place during the hours of darkness while others will happen in broad daylight.
‘We need to send a clear message to criminals that livestock theft will not be tolerated, there is every chance someone will see you and communities are joining forces to stop it.’
It’s hoped this new campaign will help farmers like Colin Abel, whose family have farmed sheep across thousands of acres of Dartmoor for more than a hundred years.
Thay have been plagued by sheep theft for a decade and the farm is now losing 200 sheep a year to thieves.
The moor’s unfenced roads and sparse population make it attractive to rustlers who have skills to round up sheep, transport them, and have a market for illegally slaughtered and butchered meat.
Farmer Colin Abel said: ‘The situation is getting worse. For small farms, the risk of having stock stolen is now making it too risky to graze sheep on the moor.
‘Because fewer sheep are being kept on Dartmoor, that’s leading to grass not being grazed which in turn brings a higher risk of fire. In a dry spell in February, we had one of the worst moorland fires we have ever seen, covering hundreds of acres of moorland.’