{"id":5760,"date":"2012-04-10T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T15:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=5760"},"modified":"2012-04-10T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T15:44:11","slug":"okie-economics-why-cattle-rustling-is-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/04\/10\/okie-economics-why-cattle-rustling-is-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Okie Economics: Why Cattle Rustling is on the Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5764\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/soonerpa\/5301861392\/sizes\/z\/in\/photostream\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5764\" title=\"Oklahoma Cows\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/cows.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/cows.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/cows-500x335.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/cows-150x101.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/04\/cows-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Soonerpa \/ Flickr<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<\/div><p>Money doesn\u2019t grow in Oklahoma pastures, but it might graze in them.<\/p><p>While the profit margin on commonly stolen items like household electronics and jewelry is low \u2014 even for legitimate sellers \u2014 livestock brings big bucks.<\/p><p>Cattle theft is on the rise in Oklahoma. Why? Simple economics.<\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a combination of the economy being down and cattle prices being up,\u201d John Cummings, a Claremore-based special ranger with the Cattle Raisers Association <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/news\/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120410_12_A11_CUTLIN475758&rss_lnk=1\">tells<\/a> the <em>Tulsa World<\/em>\u2019s Rhett Morgan.<\/p><p>More than 13,000 head of cattle and horses were stolen in 2011, while the annual average from 2008-2010 was around 7,000, the paper reports.<\/p><p>The total market loss of livestock, saddle and trailer thefts in 2011 was almost $4.3 million, according to data from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Livestock Market<\/strong><\/h3><p>High cattle prices have been driven, in part, by the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/drought\/\">drought in Oklahoma and Texas<\/a>, the <em>World<\/em> reports.<\/p><p>Ranchers faced with water and feed issues had to sell off their herds in 2011. And because of high property prices, the land ranchers lease is often spread out \u2014 sometimes over three or four counties, the paper reports.<\/p><p>Big swatches of unattended land attract brazen rustlers. And, unfortunately, the tools of the illegal trade \u2014 pickups and trailers \u2014 are commonplace in rural Oklahoma.<\/p><p><em>Most cattle are stolen in broad daylight, Cummings said.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Money doesn\u2019t grow in Oklahoma pastures, but it might graze in them.While the profit margin on commonly stolen items like household electronics and jewelry is low \u2014 even for legitimate sellers \u2014 livestock brings big bucks.Cattle theft is on the rise in Oklahoma. Why? Simple economics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":5764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,15],"tags":[353],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5771,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions\/5771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}