TULSA — A sign on the gate of Ted Allen’s ranch in Bixby reads, "There’s nothing here worth dying for.”
But according to Allen, the not-so-subtle warning did little to save the dozen or more cattle that disappeared from the 480-acre spread in May.
"I was watching a cow every day to see if she had a calf, and I came back one morning and she’s gone,” Allen said.
"Then I realized that we had three or four more missing, and we ended up with at least 12 gone.”
Allen, 79, who has been raising cattle on the ranch since he was 16, is convinced it was a case of cattle rustling.
"I didn’t think that happened anymore,” he said. "I’ve only seen it on TV and in the movies.”
The story has been the same in recent months for dozens of ranchers across the state who awoke to find their cattle missing, sometimes with a cut lock on the gate or tire tracks left by trucks and trailers.
The rate of cattle theft has more than doubled in the past year to about 45 head a month, according to officials at the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
Other states also see rise in thefts
Many blame the weak economy.
"We talk about the tough economic times and you talk about the factories closing in the city, but you forget about the rural communities. They’re hurting, too,” said Tom Troxel, an agriculture professor at the University of Arkansas.
"Cattle rustling always seems to go up when the economy goes down.”
States such as Texas, Missouri and Montana also report steep increases in cattle rustling, Troxel said.
Earlier this month, officials in Choctaw County charged four people with stealing 50 calves from a ranch. They allegedly used a livestock trailer and ATVs to round up the calves before driving them more than 200 miles north to a stockyard near Tahlequah.
All 50 head were stolen in one night, and the owner called law enforcement early the next morning.
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