Two cows valued at €2,000 each could be put down later this week unless their owner comes forward to claim them.
The red Limousin heifers – which are untagged and difficult to identify as a result – wandered onto a farm at Kilconly, near Tuam, Co Galway, last weekend.
Michael O’Brien, Department of Agriculture superintendent veterinary inspector in Galway, said the farmer who found the animals contacted the department when nobody came to collect the cattle.
He said it was “extraordinary” that the heifers, which he described as fine two-year-old specimens, had not yet been claimed as the pair was worth about €4,000.
Appeals through the local radio station and Irish Farmers Association failed to alert their owner.
Mr O’Brien said: “If you owned animals and they were stolen you would surely report it but we have contacted the Garda and they have received no reports.”
