The trade is dangerous and easy to learn, commented some ex-inmates sentenced for theft and slaughter of large cattle, a criminal figure in constant boiling, like Pedro Botero's boilers.
The modus operandis are as varied as they are demeaning: some slaughterers cut off the animal's head, others beat it, or cut it apart, if the place is not completely safe to "work calmly."
The crime begins with the marking of the land, with knowing where the dam is, the way they will get to it and if there are "pitirres on the wire" (someone who can give them away). After the prey is killed, the spectrum widens, because on rare occasions those who kill eat all the meat.
They market it and that is when they begin to leave a large trail of deformation in the neighborhood, because everyone knows that if they kill the animal it is because it will have receivers, previous orders or not. That is proven, moreover, in these times of shortage, with the pound of beef cheaper than pork.
It has been verified that, on occasions, the chain that kills the cow is made up of more than 30 links —in other words, people— from those who facilitate the occurrence of the event, slaughter it, transport it, market it, to permanent and eventual buyers.
It is reprehensible that those who dedicate themselves to this activity sacrifice without prior selection (animals of great genetic value, dairy or pregnant cows, heifers. They cut the tendons and, in the worst case, in the possible presence of some unknown and the haste to get to better shelter, the slaughterer takes advantage of only a part of the carcass, which bleeds to death and then remains at the mercy of any other scavenger predator —including dyed auras—, because the slaughterers generally do not usually return to the place of slaughter. the facts until after a while, if they are not summoned by greed and easy prey, motivated by the lack of control on the part of those who must take care of the herd.
Due to the deforming and corrupting nature of the crime, greater action is needed on the block and in the neighborhood, especially if it is the final destination of the "red cloth" or "pasture tilapia", a euphemism used by those who are dedicated to marketing it.
Eliminating evil is difficult, but if you want to at least mitigate it, you have to cut the roots that propitiate it. In the first instance, control and redouble vigilance over the cattle mass in state companies, CPA, CCS and landless cattle owners, many of whom put the herd in the hands of thieves.
It is striking that, in the cooperative and peasant sector, for example, there are 132 peasant surveillance detachments in Ciego de Ávila, with more than 13,000! members; that is, 95.6 of the associates, according to figures provided by authorities of that organization in the territory.
However, in that sector, in 2022 the slaughter —said like that, without euphemism— amounted to 1847 heads (including 541 equines). In the first five months of the current year, the figure rises to 708 heads. It is hard to believe the high number of thefts and sacrifices, despite the fact that, supposedly, there are more than 13,000 people—more than 26,000 eyes—caring for the animals. Even then, they do not diminish the facts. The obligatory question: Will these detachments work?
The numbers are scary. In total (Cooperative and Peasant sector, and the State), last year in the province the slaughterers eliminated 4,618 head of cattle (1,552 equines) and up to May this figure is around 1,896 (729 equines), shows that theft here, as in the rest of the country, is on the rise without stopping.
In Ciego de Ávila, for example, a census has not been carried out for several years and, therefore, the number of controlled animals is not what actually exists in the pastures; rather, he walks free through the cane fields or through the so-called zones of silence, a euphemism that someone came up with to call to give another name to the lack of control.
Penalties for illegal slaughter of large cattle and trafficking in their meat can be up to 10 years, according to article 316.1 of the new Penal Code. Not even that for crime. In the last four years, including the first four months of April of this year, the slaughter amounted to just over 9,000 animals; if mortality is added to this, the figure grows even more.
Tints of impunity are taking the crimes related to the theft and slaughter of large cattle.
There could be many remedies to end the curse of the pastures, a problem that has become very serious. "Bandits are dangerous and persistent. They do not respect schedules or that there is custody. Many times, they come during the day, armed, with total impunity, to take the animals from their owners. Never seen before”, comments Julio César, a law farmer, there on the banks of the Liberación de Florencia Hydrogroup.
At the rate of theft and sacrifice, there will be no animals left in the field. In 2021, the country lost 33,690 heads for this reason and last year the figure increased to 82,445. That represents 16,000 tons of meat, which is, in turn, 5,000 tons of boneless meat. If we take more accounts, it equals two pounds of meat for people lost only due to theft and sacrifice. Untenable.
For this comment, Granma was helped by 54 cattle owners, in state companies and the cooperative and peasant sector. Most of them stated that they were very disappointed with the policy that is carried out with the theft and sacrifice and with the incentives for the development of livestock. «Life in the countryside and dealing with animals is not easy, for them to be stolen from you, and many times justice is not done. If there is no gear, a participatory system of all the factors, the problem will not be solved. Then we will be lost. Agriculture alone cannot end theft and slaughter."
The reality is that thieves have a safe market, as the price of beef, at least in Ciego de Ávila, as I already explained, is lower than that of pork, so there is a growing demand. For that reason, more and more people are starting to get into that “business”.
At this point, one of those questioned brought up Operation Tauro, which began in August 2011, the progress of which was exposed a year later, in the debates prior to the IX Period of Sessions of the Seventh Legislature of the National Assembly of Popular Power, which took place at the Conventions Center, in Havana.
In the Operation..., of which little is remembered after more than a decade, many "factors" were involved, including the Ministry of Agriculture, state agencies, political and mass organizations, the structures of the Government and the Party... A whole system was based on the reduction of theft and sacrifice. And the killing was stopped.
That Operation acted on three elements: own responsibility of the cattle holder, control of the criminal potential, and check on the receivers, with the participation of the neighborhood, a mechanism that today does not work, or works only in some places.
Those were times where you did not live with thieves. Today, they are in the patio of the house, in the corral and they even enjoy a certain impunity. «One can find a person inside the pasture, at two in the morning, with knives, ropes, sacks and that is not enough to prosecute him; meanwhile, acts of violence are becoming more recurrent and dangerous, because the thief comes willing to kill, and not just the beef," almost all those questioned by Granma agree.
They believe that another difficulty is the logistics of the police, especially if the continuous events occur on the same night and in several territories at the same time, as has happened, apart from the fact that it is impossible for the Police to be behind each animal.
It is not that what is not done is designed to end the cattle mass of the country. It is about changing the way of acting if what has been done up to now —Operation Taurus aside— has not given results. "If you are looking for different results, do not always do the same thing," said Albert Einstein.
The "forced decrease" and the almost null recovery would lead to the end of the cattle mass. It must be said without hindrance. And it is that to develop a good bull or an animal of high genetic value, at least three years of work are invested; a heifer can get pregnant at 16 months to calve at 25. Too long.
As a strategy, animals can be confined to a paddock for whole nights, but this mismanagement has its economic impact due to low productions, increased deaths... All of this ruins the development of livestock.
If urgent measures are not taken, the livestock could be lost, and not only due to deaths and theft and slaughter. The farmers themselves illustrate with a very simple way, cellar mathematics, as they say: «It is illogical, most of the producers agree, that the State sells a can of soft drink at 120 pesos, a can of beer at 200 and pays the producer only 20 pesos for a liter of milk”.