livestock

Police said the high value of livestock suggests that some of the cases will have a link to "organised crime and cross-border criminality".

That would allow them to share information about the animal’s whereabouts with owners of livestock that could become a meal for the apex predators.

Golden eagles were wiped out in England and Wales by the mid-19th Century, mainly due to persecution by those who saw them as a threat to livestock or game birds.

The sheep stolen were all ewes in lamb, in an area which has seen the highest proportion of livestock theft in the UK between April 2024 and March 2025, the court heard.

New powers to shoot young ravens in Orkney are being drawn up by Scotland's natural heritage agency following a spate of attacks on livestock.