Italy : Mafia's cows rounded up

Herds of wild cows are an unlikely mafia weapon that trample crops, cause train derailments and terrorise local residents

For over more than four decades these animals have been set loose by the ’NDrangheta to wander farmland in Calabria. It had been a potent symbol of the Mob’s dominance. Michele Di Bari, the interior ministry’s representative in Reggio Calabria, the regional capital, said that nobody dared to complain. Such was the level of intimidation that the people were subjected to.

Significantly, not less than 1,000 of the mafia’s “sacred cows” have turned wild, travelling in herds led by bulls weighing up to a tonne, breeding in the countryside and charging walkers and cars. In Polistena, for instance, villagers cowered as a herd rampaged through the cemetery.

Three train accidents have been attributed to cows straying on to the track. Sadly, people have been reluctant to speak out since a farmer was shot dead in 2005 after complaining to a clan boss that the animals were destroying his land.

Officials have been rounding up the cattle and moving them to fenced pastures in the Aspromonte national park.  Some diseased cattle were put down but 20 bulls have been released in the park.