WESTERN SLOPE — Investigators are working to determine if nearly 200 cattle that were reported missing southwest of Montrose were stolen.
The Montrose County Sheriff's Office said roughly 180 cattle, collectively, are not accounted for by a number of ranchers. The cattle are missing from the Uncompahgre Plateau, where they graze during the summer months.
“You can always lose some to predators, to accidents, to poisonous weeds, things like that. But the 180 is just far more than normal," said Montrose County Sheriff Chuck Searcy. “It's hard to believe that there's still 180 cattle up on the plateau, as much snow is up there as right now. And these ranchers who ride and do their due diligence to find their cattle, and they're not finding them. That leads us to believe that something nefarious has been happening to the cows.”
Searcy said livestock theft is usually minimal in Montrose County. Investigators have a large area to search for clues — an estimated 75,000 acres, according to Searcy.
“It's a large area, and it's all public land that these cattle were on. So to have an actual crime scene, if you will, we don't have one. And now a majority of that's buried in snow," Searcy explained.
Most of the 180 missing cattle are calves, Searcy said. He estimates the number of missing cattle totals to anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000.
“I estimate these calves probably between 500 and 700 pounds, depending on when they were born before they went onto the mountain and then came down," said Searcy. “It's just odd that it's just mostly calves missing. And that's, again, another red flag for us that something else is going on.”
One of the ranchers missing cattle is Mont Snyder of Mex & Sons. Snyder is missing 26 of his cattle.
“It's been looked at from the air, and they're not finding them. I flew also with a good friend of mine, and we didn't find anything," said Snyder. “We see nothing. They're gone.”
Snyder has some theories but did not expand on them at this time. The family did provide Denver7 with an image of the brand they use for cattle, in case someone sees the missing 26 head.
Anyone with information about what may have happened to the cattle is asked to call the Montrose County dispatch at 970-249-9110.
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