Sheep rustling shocks vineyard owner, rancher

An old-fashioned crime made a bizarre showing in Napa County last week. Two sheep were shot and eight others are believed to have been stolen from a Mount Veeder vineyard during the height of a storm last Thursday. When George Richmond, owner of the flock, checked on his animals, he found a dead adult and a lamb. At first, he thought a coyote had killed them, but a friend who looked at them told him they were shot. “I was really surprised and it kind of made me wonder,” he said. “I don’t know how could somebody do this.” The rustler would have had to know a gate code and the combination for a padlock on a gate, said Richmond, who lives in Suisun Valley. The vineyard is in a remote area not visible from a road. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought of Tom’s vineyard as a target,” Richmond said. The vineyard owner, Tom Meadowcroft, was using Richmond’s sheep to control grass and weeds, while also fertilizing the vines. The sheep had been doing their job for two and a half weeks. “It’s a wonderful cycle to have in the vineyard,” Meadowcroft said...more