Police believe hundreds of young ducks stolen in an audacious Mearns farm raid may have been taken to stock another poultry unit.
The 230 laying birds – worth around £3,000 – were removed from a shed at a farm near Laurencekirk in the early hours of last Friday.
The unusual heist is the latest is series of Scottish livestock rustling incidents contributing to a rural crimewave which hit British farmers to the tune of £3million last year.
The young females were among 2,000 birds within a number of pens at the farm and are thought to have been stolen between midnight and 3am.
Investigating officer PC Marc Camus said the scale of the theft and its specific nature could point towards a planned raid to stock another unit with the potentially valuable birds.
“Due to the number of ducks taken it is believed that a vehicle similar in size to a pick-up truck or a transit van would have been sufficient to transport the animals.
“They are Khaki Campbells, which are predominantly brown, and French Cherry Valleys, primarily white in colour.”
The majority of the birds were some three months old, and with an egg-laying life of two years one theory is that they will find their way into another farmer’s stock.
“If anyone has any information about this incident they are asked to call Police Scotland on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111,” said PC Camus.
An NFU Scotland spokesman said that although vehicles and farm equipment remain the most popular target for thieves, livestock rusting is also a major issue.
“These tend not to be opportunist crimes. There needs to be an element of organisation and transport must have been involved in this case,” said the spokesman.
The organisation has said that whilst the live ducks may be offered for sale, there is also the possibility that catering outlets may be offered meat, which can be the case when large numbers of livestock are stolen.
“If anyone is running a catering outlet and is suddenly offered meat from an unusual source they should question what the provenance of it might be,” the spokesman added.
NFUS has repeated its advice for people to report any suspicious vehicles or activity in rural areas.
Rural theft in total stacked up to an estimated £42.5m across the UK in 2015, a marginal increase from the previous year.
But efforts to stem some of the losses have proved successful, including a large scale Scottish initiative to cut quad bike thefts which saw crime costs slashed by 40% in 2015.
Another huge reduction came about through the expansion of Horse Watch Schemes which last year helped reduce equine tack and equipment thefts by 41% UK-wide.
