Stupid Goat Tricks

Saturday morning might have turned out to be okay - maybe a little hot, except for the unwanted goats that everyone kept trying to herd into our property... "Hey! You have goats! These must be yours!". The first time was around 8:30, when we go outside to start the morning and I see, in the distance, three goats coming toward the inside gate (about a tenth of a mile from the outside gate) and a car that is parked behind them. Someone is trying, I thought, to tell us that the fences are bad and we have goats that got out.

I take my golf cart to the first gate and realize that these aren't our goats! Someone has dropped them off and just assumed we'd take them. With feed prices so high, it's easy to see why people who can't afford to feed their animals would want to dump them. These were two very large billy goats and a female Boer goat in heat. I get to the folks standing at the outside gate and we do the introductions. They're neighbors. The goats, at this time, have traveled down the driveway toward Mike, who's looking a little perplexed.

We manage to get them out the gate and close it, so they can't come back, but the electric fences are not working properly and we have to monitor them, so they're not tempted. Goats are herd animals and they've seen our herd and want to join them. The goats that were dropped off look very healthy, but we can't allow them to interact with our own herd because looks can be deceiving. Also, one billy goat per herd is pretty standard and I am willing to bet that these just got two old for the owners who probably bought them for their kids or as roping dummies. Yes, the thought makes me sick, animals purchased for the pleasure of torturing them. Some of our neighbors have this mindset. We do not.

So, the goats, with the help of a car that came along ("do you want us to move them to the gate so you can get them back in?") "No! they're not ours... if you could just herd them further along, someone might claim them..."

Fine. So they're gone. Or so I thought. Next thing I know, I'm hearing a sheriff's car horn and seeing flashing lights an hour after the goat ordeal. Then I see the three goats. AGAIN. They've been herded back into our property. The sheriff actually opened the gate to let them in! Another man, who has stopped to help the sheriff herd the goats into our gate, stands by them. I'm in my cart, shouting, "No... no! These aren't ours... Don't... no!" Waving my hands, etc...

The sheriff has the audacity to ask me if I'm the one that put them 'out' as if out into the street. I tell him that they were dumped at our place, but they're not ours. The guy with him named Cal, says that he'll take the goats, but he has some errands to run and is towing a long trailer at the moment.

Fine. We try to keep the goats in the driveway until the guy comes back to claim them. The sheriff is gone, now, and we've got the goats. Cal says that he has about 15 acres and the only thing that gets dropped off at his place are mangy dogs.

It's a LONG time before Cal returns and at this point, we've decided to shoot the goats and are looking at tanning procedures on the web. Goat skin can come in handy or we could sell it.

In the meantime, two of the goats, the female and one male have escaped the driveway and are mingling with our herd. We capture them in the barn and herd them into stalls, each in their own and right next to each other.

About 2:00 pm, we're out working fences to make sure this doesn't happen again and to keep our goats on the inside of the fence. We're up near the street and Cal shows up, pulls up along side and says that he's having all kinds of problems, but that he still wants the goats. We tell him that we've got a cage (mike made it) and that the cage will hold the animals and he can take them now if he wants. We knew the hardest one to get will be the one in the driveway because it can and will still go through the fence, but it must have been shocked because it not only didn't go through the fence, it was a little wary of it. This worked nicely to our advantage.

The chickens that we had in the cage on the lawn (fattening them up for slaughter), had to be moved. That was my job. We had three red roos and one barred rock roo that was being mean - this was Brooster, the female rooster. I put the three red roos in the shed (where we feed the cats - who will probably never forgive me) and let out Brooster. He'd been in the cage terrorizing the three red roos for a few days and he's easy to catch (pretty stupid), so I let him out to forage.

The cage was fastened to Cal's trailer and we got the two goats from the barn in (although they didn't want to go). I jokingly said, "hey, you want two more?" Cal said sure, he'd take a few more - he got 8's older wether and 215's older wether. These are (castrated) males that are too old for eating, so we gave them to him.

It ruined our day, but turned out slightly better than it could have. We got rid of two useless wethers - a present, no doubt, for one of Cal's daughters whose birthday was that day.

It was a long day and maybe people don't realize what a burden it is for weekend farmers who don't have the time to deal with their castoffs. It's just rude to dump animals on others when you don't want them, whether it's mangy dogs or unwanted livestock. If it happens again, I'm going to get a nice goatskin rug out of it. I've been learning a lot about tanning a hide and I'd rather it be yours than some poor, unwanted pet that your kid outgrew.