Thievery occurs in agriculture too

Manufacturers build big warehouses for storage of their products so they won’t be stolen. Agriculturists can’t do that. Crops in the field can’t be locked up. Neither can cattle or sheep — or horses. Since prevention is difficult, punishment after the fact was considered the next best option, the sooner the better, in the old days. So horse thieves were summarily hanged from the nearest big tree. Actually, cattle rustlers and horse thieves were the main reasons for the formation of livestock associations in the late 1800s and for branding livestock to prove ownership. The possibility of theft also is why most ranches don’t have their shipping pens and loading chutes near a highway. No use making the thieves’ getaway easier. Times have changed...Clovis News Journal