Farmer paints his sheep orange to stop rising thefts

A farmer from Devon in England had dyed his sheep to orange color in order to protect them from getting stolen. John Heard had dyed a flock of 250 sheep, after he had lost 200 of his blackface ewes in the past years.

Surprisingly, the thefts of the sheep had stopped as soon as they were dyed in the unique color. Heard had reared the unique and costly species of blackface ewes, which was worth around £140 per sheep.

The 48 year old farmer said that he was fed up the way he was losing his sheep one by one, which had become a major problem. This was when Heard’s son James had suggested that they should dye them in a unique color.

The trick worked and this year Heard did not lose a single sheep. The farmer said that the trick worked due to the reason that if the sheep was stolen then they could be easily distinguished. Moreover, he could also keep an eye on the neighbors if they had even tried to steel a sheep. The idea also worked as the coloring did not have any side effects on the sheep, as it gradually comes off. After watching Heard, even other farmers are now slowly adopting the method to prevent such incidences.