ONE of three cattle which mysteriously disappeared last week from
common grazings in the Western Isles has turned up dead on
Orkney.
Although the three beasts were seen happily grazing on Sunday,
May 3, two days later they had vanished sparking a large-scale
search operation which found no trace of them.
Jock shows the cliffs near Tolsta
Now suspicion is growing that low-flying military planes taking
part in a large military exercise spooked the cattle causing them
to plunge off the sheer cliffs close to where they were kept.
Retired Metropolitan Police detective Jock Murray, who was
looking after the cattle for his daughter Catriona and her
husband David Maclennan, was baffled how Catherine the
five-year-old cow, Heather the two-year-old heifer and Angusina,
a one-year-old calf, had gone missing and all at the same time.
The three beasts and another bullock were on the common grazings
between his home village of Gress and neighbouring North Tolsta
in an area known as the Cnip.
“You hear of animals very occasionally going too near cliffs and
falling. However, I have not heard of several animals falling off
cliffs at the same time without good reason. They must have been
scared of something and as there are no sheep on the common
grazings between Gress and North Tolsta you never see any dogs
there.
“But a large military exercise has been going on off the
north-west of Scotland and there have been reports in the local
media of low-flying by jets particularly late at night. That is
why we have good grounds for thinking that has had something to
do with what happened to these cattle,” he said.
Poor Heather was found washd up on Orkney
He said that as well as the considerable financial loss to his
daughter and her husband, he and his wife Donalda as well as
their daughter’s children had become very attached to the animals
and were devastated at how all three had disappeared without
trace.
“We have had search parties with quad bikes all over the moors
and we have had friends and coastguard personnel searching the
coast with us in boats. Then on Thursday, Catriona had a phone call from the vet in Orkney saying Heather the heifer had been washed up not far from Skara Brae. We had been traced through
the ear tags.”
Mr Murray is now keen to build up a picture of what may have
caused the cattle – or at least poor Heather – to plunge down
the cliffs. He appealed for anyone who heard military aircraft on
Monday or Tuesday of last week in the Back or North Tolsta area
to contact him on 01851 820225.
The Royal Air Force said that Exercise Joint Warrior had been in
progress at the time but could shed little other light.
Squadron Leader John Gilbert, the RAF’s community relations
officer in Scotland, said: “There are 400 missions by our
aircraft being flown each day so I cannot say now whether there
were specific aircraft in that area around that time.”
He invited Mr Murray to write to him so the RAF could consider
the claim in detail.
The multi-force multi-nation Exercise Joint Warrior is. the MoD
says, aimed at providing joint collective training in a
multi-threat environment for UK, NATO and Allied units and
their staffs, to enable them to operate together in tactical
formations as preparation for deployment in a component of a
Joint Combined Task Force.
It is due to wind up next Thursday.
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