Find My iCow: Ranchers Are Using Smartphones to Battle Cattle Theft

There's a lawyer joke in Texas—recently recalled by Dick DeGuerin in The Jinx—about an Illinois lawyer who asks the state's Chief Justice, "Why is it that you hang horse thieves in Texas, but let murderers go free?"

The Chief Justice replies, "Because horses never need stealing."

Regardless of how that reflects on the Lone Star State's judicial moral compass when it comes to humans, it does underscore Texas's commitment to its agricultural commodities, including farm animals.

Livestock theft is a felony in the state, with penalties that can range from two to ten years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine. Oh, and that's per head: in 2011, a man convicted of stealing 400 head of cattle was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

With cattle prices currently at a record high in the US, methane-belching cows remain highly desirable to rustlers looking to make a buck. Nearly 5,800 cattle were reported stolen in Texas in 2014, at a value of more than $5.7 million.

The Special Rangers who investigate those cases use their smartphones to photograph potentially stolen cattle—not unlike officials in the Indian state of Maharashtra, who are reportedly keeping mugshots of local cows and bulls in an effort to enforce the local government's ban on the sale of beef.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that the rangers, who work in conjunction with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, cross-reference the photos they take with a database of livestock brands and missing animal reports.

"Any time you see the price of any commodity go up, you see the theft of that commodity rise," Larry Gray, executive director of law enforcement for the association, told the AP. This year alone, the rangers have already investigated nearly 400 cases of cattle theft.

Some of the investigators interviewed by the AP believe that many rustling cases are tied to illegal drug use, though those often only involve a few head at a time. The massive heist of 1,100 head in March—which the Texas Monthly noted must have involved "at least 30 trailers full of bawling calves" simply vanishing—was clearly more of a coordinated caper probably not cooked up by junkies.

Gray told the AP that branded or otherwise marked cattle have an "80 to 85 percent chance of recovery," while unbranded ones have something more like 35 percent. But one cowboy noted that Texas is a prime spot for moving stolen cattle because the state doesn't mandate the use of branding. "If it ain't marked, you can get away with it," he said.