Cattle-smugglers have turned to cosmetic surgery to get their old cattle to conceal their past, especially where they came from on this island.
Within the past few days, cattle with silicone implants in their ears to conceal the holes left by the removal of identity tags from Northern Ireland, have been discovered in a Munster meat plant.
The animals had been retagged with identity tags from the Republic so they could be sold. There is still a ban on cattle from the North or Britain being exported.
The removal of ear tags, however, leaves an unsightly hole which immediately identifies the animal as having been tagged before and this has to be plugged by the smugglers to avoid detection.
A variety of substances has been used for this purpose down the years but silicone, which is used for cosmetic surgery, has not been used for this purpose before.
The silicone is much harder to detect than other substances like Polyfilla, plastic wood and even plasticine set in the tag holes using Superglue.
The implants were discovered in the ears of four cattle which were presented for slaughter at a Munster meat factory last week as they were being prepared for the slaughter line.
The veterinary inspector at the plant, in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, became suspicious when he found that the tags in the ear of a bull, which had also been taken to the plant, had described the animal as a bullock.
He discovered that the animal's ears had been tampered with and on closer examination found that silicone implants had been put in the tag holes. He alerted Department of Agriculture staff at the plant who immediately called the gardai who are compiling a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions on the incident.
Department of Agriculture sources said yesterday that the at- tempt to conceal the source of the animals had been "very clever" and represented a new challenge for Department staff.
"We never thought that we would have to bone up on cosmetic surgery to be on top of the job, but it looks like we will have to do that," he said.
The "remodelled" cattle are being held at the Cavan cattle pound awaiting their fate. Since the ban was imposed on Northern exports, 1,441 cattle from the North have been seized.