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Two cattle headed to a New Jersey slaughterhouse this week had other plans.

Federal authorities are investigating the finances of an idled beef plant and a federal immigration program that supplied much of its funding, two former chief players in the company told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Wolf pack numbers in the Blackfoot River watershed northeast of Missoula, Mont., have grown from one in 2007 to at least a dozen this year, but there has been little impact on ranches in the region.

Two California men have admitted their part in the attempted theft of beef from a Kansas slaughterhouse. Prosecutors say the case exemplifies a relatively new form of identity theft in which suspects pose as a legitimate trucking firm to steal cargo.

A crime that was at the center of many Western movies is thriving in modern-day California as reports of cattle rustling are on the rise, state livestock officials said.

Ranchers in South Dakota are finding ways to persevere after October’s early blizzard.

Landowners and others who opposed transferring Yellowstone National Park bison to Indian reservations in northern Montana have asked a state judge to declare that any bison captured outside the park should be considered livestock rather than wildlife.

State Veterinarian Dustin Oedekoven said Thursday he now estimates that 15,000 to 30,000 cattle died in the early autumn blizzard that buried western South Dakota in snow nearly two weeks ago.

Attorneys have asked that a minimum bid of $12.75 million be set for an idled South Dakota beef packing plant at an auction scheduled for Dec. 5.

Express Ranches of Yukon, Okla., will donate the 2014 Angus Foundation Heifer, to sell January 2014 at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colo.