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Rare Valais sheep feared stolen for meat sale

Police investigating the case of 103 sheep which disappeared from an alpine pasture near Saas-Almagell in the canton of Valais are treating it as theft.

Published: 18 September 2014 10:53 CEST

Rare Valais sheep feared stolen for meat sale

The Saas sheep has distinctive long, pendulous ears. Photo: ProSpecieRara

The missing Saas sheep – a Swiss breed whose numbers are in decline – were part of a larger flock of 350 brought down from the pastures to the village last Friday, reported newspaper Le Matin on Wednesday.

On discovering they were 103 sheep short, farmers sent search parties out to look for them, both on foot and by helicopter, but none were found.

The non-profit organization ProSpecieRara, which works to preserve rare species of plants and animals, said in a statement: “103 sheep cannot disappear like that. They must have been stolen by thieves.”

As the area sits on the Swiss-Italian border, police in both countries are involved in the hunt for the missing sheep.

Speaking to The Local on Thursday, Nicole Egloff of ProSpecieRara said it is unlikely the thieves stole the sheep to sell on.

"You can only sell them as Saas sheep, and only if they are registered in the studbook, which in turn is not possible without specifying they are stolen sheep. It's similar to when a famous painting is stolen – you cannot sell it without being exposed as a thief.

"So we are assuming that their meat was of interest. Sheep meat has a value of 200-300 francs, so 103 times that is a lucrative amount."

A species bred mainly in the Valais, Saas sheep are increasingly rare. In 40 years the population has declined by three-quarters to just 400 animals.

ProSpecieRara has been collaborating with local farmers to boost breeding of the sheep, which are distinguished by long, dropping ears and hook noses.

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Farmers dump sheep killed by wolves in front of Swiss government building

Around a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthelemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay out the carcasses of 12 sheep in front of the regional government headquarters in Lausanne, the Chateau Saint-Maire.

“These sheep were killed last night,” Eric Herb, a member of a Swiss association demanding the regulation of big predators, was quoted as saying by the Keystone-ATS news agency.

“It is really time to act.”

“We are sick of this. We want the wolf killed,” agreed Patrick Perroud, a farmer and butcher from the nearby municipality of Oulens.

“Cohabitation is not possible. Our territory is too small,” he told Keystone-ATS.

The protesters told the news agency that wolves had killed 17 sheep in the same area late last month, two earlier this week and 13 overnight to Saturday.

“The breeders have played nice until now, but this time it was too much,” Herb said.

The protesters were planning to increase the pressure on the Vaud government environment minister, Vassilis Venizelos of the Green Party, he said.

One of the protesters’ banners read: “Vassilis step down”, Keystone-ATS reported.

The breeders had briefly negotiated with regional police before being allowed to lay down the animal carcasses on tarpaulin in front of the Chateau.

Participants in the protest, which was supported by the regional chapter of the far-right Swiss People’s Party — Switzerland’s largest party — lamented that they were losing sleep.

“We have to check on our animals every night,” one was quoted as saying.

After being wiped out more than a century ago, wolves have in recent decades begun returning to Switzerland and to several other European countries.

Since the first pack was spotted in the wealthy Alpine nation in 2012, the number of packs swelled to 32 last year, with around 300 individual wolves counted.

Nature conservation groups have hailed the return as a sign of a healthier and more diverse ecosystem.

But breeders and herders complain of attacks on livestock and have been ramping up demands to cull more wolves.

Swiss authorities last year relaxed the rules for hunting the protected species, and decided to allow large preventative culls in the most affected cantons but swift legal actions put those plans partially on ice.

The debate in several parts of Europe about wolves rose up the political agenda in September.

In an open letter to the European Commission, eight leading conservation groups said there were ways to make coexistence easier between humans and large wild animals like wolves.

“Damage to livestock is often linked to the lack of adequate supervision and/or physical protection,” they said. They pointed to strategies such as “the training of dogs to protect herds, education of herders, tools and technical solutions to deter wolves”.

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