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90% wool, 10% gone
About 100 sheep are brought in to chew away at a Tallahassee park's kudzu problem. Ten are missing and presumed mutton.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 27, 2001
TALLAHASSEE -- Ten sheep are missing from the flock that munches away at kudzu in Florida's capital, and their shepherd doesn't expect to see them again.
"I think somebody ate them," Meaghan Thacker said.
Thacker had about 100 sheep at a city park. Their assignment: chew through the fast-growing nuisance vine. When they were off duty, the sheep were penned up inside an electric fence with Smoke, a Yugoslavian guard dog.
Thacker noticed Saturday that the battery powering the fence was missing. And her flock looked a little thin.
She loaded the sheep up Tuesday and moved the flock to its regular home -- in an undisclosed location now. She tallied them as they jumped one by one from her trailer.
"It's just like counting sheep," she said.
Police and state investigators say they're stumped. They don't know who might want the sheep, except for someone with a taste for mutton.
"We have no clues," said Sgt. Chip Springer with the Tallahassee Police Department.
The sheep belong to Bellwether Solutions, a Concord, N.H., company that leased them to the city to deal with the growing kudzu problem. They're worth about $150 each.
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