Stolen cattle reappearing at their ranches

When Rand and Jayne Collins gathered their cattle this winter from a remote, high-desert grazing allotment, they got a shock. A bunch of stolen cows showed up back in their herd, apparently returned by the same wily gang of horseback rustlers who snatched 150 cattle worth $150,000 from them about four years ago. As many as 20 mother cows that hadn't been there in summer mysteriously reappeared, Rand Collins said. Rustlers in southeastern Oregon's Malheur County alone have stolen up to 1,240 cattle valued at $1.7 million at today's prices over the past three years. Hardest hit were about 20 Oregon ranchers -- with a dozen, including the Collinses, taking the brunt of the losses, Malheur County sheriff's officials said. The rustlers targeted cattle on a vast and remote swath of high desert known as the "ION country," where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada come together. Most thefts occurred in a region bounded by Murphy, Idaho, to the east, Winnemucca, Nev., to the south and Oregon's spectacular 30-mile-long, upthrust fault-block of Steens Mountain to the west. But now, some stolen cows are coming home...more