Over 1,030 heads of cattle were reported stolen from southern farms last year - and another 350 are suspected to have been stolen but not reported. The non-reporting breeders apparently feel that the police will continue to be powerless to help them. Cattle raisers in the north also suffer from the plague.
The stolen cattle are taken to Palestinian Authority areas, the Breeders Association reports, where competing milk and meat markets are being developed at the expense of the knowledge, experience and investments of the Israeli breeders.
Damages are estimated at 30 million shekels a year, including the loss of some 20 million liters of milk.
Chaim Dayan, a top ICBA official, says, "The cattle-owners are forced to pay from their own pockets for protection devices such as closed-circuit cameras, watchdogs, and alarm systems. But the thieves are getting better and more clever, and they are able to get in to the farms and steal cattle despite the means that have been implemented."
"The thefts have become a national plague of shocking proportions!" Dayan says. "In addition to having to work to raise cattle, the breeders now also have to be watchmen, since no one else is watching over the lawbreakers, and they have to endanger their lives and their families in protecting their property and the country's lands. Just a month ago, the [Arab - ed.] crime families sent hired killers to murder Amir Engel, and yet the foundations of the country were not shaken! People's lives and their property have become worthless, and yet the State does nothing!"
He did not mean this absolutely literally, as the police have recently decided to divert the special Dekel police unit, which has already been active in the north, to fight agricultural crime in the south as well. To this end, manpower in the unity will be more than doubled.
Dayan also expects the justice system to crack down with harsher prison sentences and fines for agricultural thieves.
A fund has been established to help farmers such as Shai Dromi with legal expenses they encounter in the course of defending their property. For information, contact the Israeli Cattle Breeder Association.