The owners of a herd of pregnant goats stolen from a field in Morgan Hill over the Thanksgiving holiday expressed fear Thursday that their beloved brush-clearing nannies could be heading for someone’s dinner plate.

The daring heist of 60 female goats was shocking to Daniel Allen, the co-owner of Green Goat Landscapers, who left the goats and their guardian dog behind an electric fence on Nov. 21 so that they could feed on a 26-acre abandoned driving range at Santa Teresa Blvd. and Bailey Ave.

He said nothing like this had ever happened to him in the four years since he and his father started the business.

“I’m extremely worried because we have a really strong bond with these goats,” Allen said. “I’m with them probably more than my wife and daughter.”

It was, by all accounts, an elaborate caper.

The thieves first punctured two barrels and dumped out 550 gallons of water that Allen left in the back of his trailer for use in an automatic goat watering system. They then shut off the power to the electric fence, cut a hole through it and herded as many of the 200 goats in the field that they could find into the trailer before driving off.

The trailer was later found four or five miles away on East Main Street, near Highway 101, but the goats haven’t been seen or heard from since.

Allen said the culprits somehow distracted his 120-pound Anatolian shepherd guard dog, probably with food. The fearsome-looking canine was waiting happily by the gate on Nov. 23 when Allen discovered the dastardly deed, as if nothing had happened to the flock.

He puts tags on the ears of his animals, but a goat rustler could easily cut off the marking.

Allen said the goats are worth about $175 a piece, but they are worth more when they are pregnant. It is rutting season, so the animals, 90 percent of whom are female, are all expected to give birth in about two months.

His biggest worry, though, is that his beloved goats, many of which he has named, will somehow find their way into a slaughterhouse.

“One of the biggest things people want them for is meat, and that’s my concern,” he said. “Don’t take them to the butcher, please.”

Allen has checked auction houses, scoured Craigslist and other online sites and posted flyers, but so far there hasn’t been a sniff of any of them.

It is a devastating blow to the family-owned eco-landscaping business, which broke even for the first time this year and just moved into new headquarters on a ranch in south San Jose. Allen and his father were planning to hire a shepherd from Peru, who would live with the animals, but now they are $10,500 short in livestock.

“Sixty goats kind of stands out,” said Allen, who promised to reward whoever locates his herd, “so we’re kind of hoping that someone will report it.”

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @pfimrite