PrintFree rein for rustlers
Conservative party MPs are getting tennis elbow patting themselves on the back for getting rid of the gun registry and they are joined in the celebration by Alberta cattle thieves who are just plain happy that they can run the back roads of Alberta shooting yearlings, throwing their carcasses in the back of a pick-up with little fear of being caught and having their guns confiscated.
The lack of snow this fall also helped. These thieves can also feel comforted by the fact that the Conservatives will destroy all the records so no rifle can be traced and guns can be privately bought outside the local bar.
The story out of Saskatchewan this week about the theft of yearlings, where the thieves are suspected of shooting prime young livestock, matches what farmers expect is happening in similar situations here in Alberta where reports of cattle rustling have been heard of west of Lethbridge, north of Edmonton and also in the Peace River country. What is appalling, is that the Harper government thinks that all farmers want to get rid of the registry and that is simply not true.
For example, this morning I spoke to a small cattle producer near Sandy Lake who had two expensive high powered rifles stolen from his farm house two years ago and just last year had them returned by the RCMP after the guns were picked up in a raid on a rural property where the owners were suspected of being involved in a shooting incident. Because the guns were registered, the rifles were returned.
Another farmer friend in the Peace River country is worried now that cattle thieves can carry unregistered guns in a gun rack above the back seat with no fear of even being stopped once the gun bill passes and this farmer, along with the Saskatchewan farmer, says that losses to wildlife “especially the two legged kind” are going to increase.
In Southern Alberta there was evidence that a large pickup had been used in the stealing of two yearlings and the thieves were sophisticated enough to drag chains to eliminate tire tread tracks. In Saskatchewan there was evidence that a truck and trailer were used to steal yearlings where the losses in one area were more than $17,000. Gunfire was heard just after dusk from some distance and the farmer suspects that two strong men could shoot a yearling, throw it in the back of a trailer and be gone in minutes.
I’m sending a copy of this letter to our local MP with a request that he reconsider his support of this faulty bill, but I fear it’s a waste of a postage stamp.
Bob Russell, St. Albert
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