Pingtung County police have launched an investigation into the theft of 21 goats from a farm in Shouli Township (壽里) that left suckling kids at risk of starvation.
Nearly half of her flock of 50 goats went missing over the weekend, including most of the nursing adult females and the farm’s sole stud, farm owner Huang Mei-chu (黃美珠), 66, said on Monday.
When the first 10 goats disappeared on Friday, her family was not alarmed, as they thought they had lost their way returning from grazing, she said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
However, the stud vanished the next day, followed by 10 more goats, whereupon the police were called, she said.
As the family counts the goats each morning, the disappearances could be explained only by premeditated and repeated theft, Huang said.
The theft was a heavy blow to the family’s finances and three of the 13 kids in the herd have died because of a lack of milk, she said.
The family is using formula to keep the remaining kids alive, she said, adding: “We do not understand how somebody could do this to us before the Lunar New Year.”
Pingtung County Police Bureau’s Hengchun Precinct (恆春) confirmed that police were investigating the alleged theft.
Officers are reviewing security camera footage and forensic experts have been summoned to gather evidence at the farm, the precinct said.
A female goat only nurses its own kids and might attack the offspring of others trying to feed, said Kang Ting-chieh (康定傑), a researcher at the Council of Agriculture Livestock Research Institute’s branch in Hengchun.
As a suckling kid could die after two or three days without milk, the survival rate for a kid without its mother is quite low, he said, adding: “It is a cruel thing to do, stealing nursing goats.”
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