BETHAL – A farmer made a gruesome discovery this morning, 13 December. 16 of his cattle were slaughtered on his farm next to the N17 near Bethal.
Mr Daan Malan said three of the 16 cattle were still alive and they had to shoot them due to their injuries.
The cattle’s hock were cut so that they could not walk anymore and they were slaughtered while they were still alive.
Mr Malan appointed extra security guards to patrol his farm during the night and he said the criminals must have been observing the guards’ movements as they slaughtered the cattle between 2am and 5am this morning.
“The guards patrolled that area for the last time at 2am this morning and just after 5am they called me and said there are carcasses,” said Mr Malan.
He said criminals tried to steal three of his cattle on Monday night at about 11pm as well, but one of his guards saw them and they ran away.
“We especially moved the cattle into a different camp closer to the house, but there must have been a few criminals because they moved all the cattle into a different camp before slaughtering them.”
Only the heads and stomachs of some of the cattle were left and a few of them still had meat on as well.
The farm safety group of Bethal attended to the scene as well as Bethal Police and the livestock theft unit.
Mr Hennie Bekker of AfriForum said the livestock theft unit does a lot to fight livestock theft.
The farms safety group urged farmers to be vigilant during this time.
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