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'Judas' goats help in cull
Posted Thu May 8, 2008 4:41pm AEST
Updated Thu May 8, 2008 4:48pm AEST

 
The device emits a beeping noise and gets stronger when getting closer to the Judas goat. (ABC Rural : Lorna Perry)

Map: Kingscote 5223
 A feral goat culling program that uses the goats themselves has cut numbers by more than half.

The program has cut feral goats on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia from about 2,500 to 1,000.

Park ranger Mike Penhall says the program involves fitting goats with satellite tracking devices.

The so-called Judas goats are released into the wild, where they mob with feral goat herds.

Mr Penhall says once the Judas goat has tracked down a herd the culling process is straight-forward.

"Because the vegetation's quite low or quite open, you're able to visualise the goats and the mobs quite easily," he said.

"We're also in a program of - on a periodic basis - of organising a closure of parks to go and actually target those feral mobs and destroy the feral animals, leaving the Judas animal to then mob-up with others."

[mikey]

Onkaparinga Gorge goats culled

Jai Bednall

06May08

 
FERAL goats the number one pest in the Onkaparinga River National Park have had their numbers wiped out by a team of crack gunmen from the Sporting Shooters Association.


A team of about 20 shooters patrolled the park late last month after being called in by the Department for Environment and Heritage.

A total of 55 goats were killed, which senior ranger Bryn Troath says is about 80 per cent of the total goat population in the 14sqm park.

``We think there's about 10 to 15 left in there,'' he said.

``Removing so many feral goats will go a long way towards helping to conserve native and regenerating vegetation in the park.''

The park was closed on Tuesday, April 29, while three teams of about five shooters and spotters tracked down the goats.

It is the first time the department has been forced to call in a team of shooters.

``We've done it before with just one shooter but never on this scale.

``We didn't think the goat population was that high but we did a survey and were surprised at how many there were.''

He said the program would probably be run again, in September or October.

[mikey]

Council orders villager to stop rearing goats


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Zainal Rashid showing Seberang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah the directive, issued by the Seberang Prai Municipal Council, to remove the goats from his compound. — NST picture by Rosli Ahmad.


BUKIT MERTAJAM: A villager who turned his compound into a mini goat breeding farm has been ordered to remove the animals by the local council here.

Zainal Rashid, 50, was also ordered to tear down the sheds that he had built for his 30-odd goats.

The directive was issued by the Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) following complaints from Zainal's neighbours that they could no longer bear the stench.

An MPSP spokesman said Zainal had applied to rear goats last year but it was turned down by the council as the site was not suitable for farming.

"His house is too close to a housing area. We also issued a notice to him December last year to get rid of his goats. However, he did not do so and we compounded him in March," he said.

The spokesman said Zainal would have to abide by the council's latest directive or face the consequences.

Meanwhile, Zainal contended that the goats were always kept within his house compound and there was no reason for his neighbours to complain. He claimed to have spent RM15,000 to improve his goat sheds early this year.

"I handle their waste properly to ensure the smell does not affect my neighbours," he said, adding he had been keeping the goats for four years.

Zainal said he had no other place to shift the goats and hoped that the council would consider his appeal to be allowed to keep the animals.

Meanwhile, Seberang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah said he would arrange a meeting between MPSP, the residents and Zainal next week to solve the matter.

"I understand that he is depending on the goats to supplement his income but at the same time we must also take the other residents' complaints seriously."
 
 
 

[mikey]

Farmer: Vandals spray-painted goats


Published: May 15, 2008 at 7:06 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:CLEARFIELD, Pa., May 15 (UPI) -- A Clearfield County, Pa., farmer said vandals snuck onto his property under cover of night and spray-painted obscenities on three of his goats.

Evan Bellin said the crime, which took place during the weekend, could set him back hundreds of dollars as the goats' wool is used to make cashmere and the paint could take months to grow out, WPXI-TV, Pittsburgh, reported Thursday.

"It's really bad to think they would do that to innocent animals. I mean if they have a problem with me, to come to me. I mean, I have all of my vehicles up here and they didn't touch anything," Bellin said.

He said he plans to keep the goats closer to his house for the foreseeable future.


© 2008 United Press

[mikey]

Goats and hens gleeful as utopia beckons on animal farm
Email Printer friendly version Normal font Large font Ian Munro, Woodstock
May 17, 2008


Jenny Brown, who lost a leg to cancer as a child, with Albie, who lost a leg following mistreatment. Ms Brown is going to great efforts to have him fitted with a prosthetic leg.
Photo: Ian Munro

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"LOOK at this, it's like I can move my ankle."

Jenny Brown leans forward, shifting her weight to where her right leg should be, but where an elaborate device of metal, carbon fibre and a hydraulic pump links her knee to a flexible "foot", which under pressure simulates the give of a natural joint.

This is possibly her 20th artificial leg, at $20,000 the most expensive, and clearly the most satisfying. With this leg she walks, hikes and jogs.

Now she wants something equally liberating for her friend, Albie, the goat who found a new life at the farm animal sanctuary she started with her husband four years ago.

Ms Brown lost her lower right leg to cancer at the age of 10. Albie lost his left foreleg in January after he was found wandering in Brooklyn having escaped an even grimmer fate.

He had been hogtied, his legs bound together, the way goats are often transported to market, Ms Brown said. The skin of his left foreleg was broken and the wound infested with maggots.

"We started him on antibiotics, poultice ointments — we tried everything and it wasn't working and you could tell in the X-rays that the infection was in the bone," she said.

Amputation followed, as have three attempts at creating a goat leg prosthesis. On three legs, Albie pitches himself forward in an awkward lunging motion.

Ms Brown's prosthetic specialist has agreed to work pro bono on the project, which involves giving Albie an artificial leg much simpler than her own.

The problem is not with the prosthesis, but with anchoring it to the stump that remains of Albie's leg.

"He's got all this loose skin and that loose skin moves up and down — it's called pistoning in the prosthetics world — so we are trying to find the most comfortable way to keep it on him," Ms Brown said. "He has walked with three different varieties of artificial leg and he has actually done pretty well.

"When people get artificial legs it takes months to get the proper fit, and here we are dealing with an animal that can't tell us 'it's a little tight over on the right', or 'I feel I am kicking my leg out too far'. We are just working on it to make it the most comfortable it can be, but it will definitely work."

Exhaustive treatment is no rarity at the sanctuary. Another goat, Olivia, is recuperating after chemotherapy and homeopathic treatments for cancer. Another goat, recovering from a broken leg, has physiotherapy twice a day. And broiler hens found abandoned and dehydrated in New York were revived with intravenous lines.

Ms Brown abandoned a career in film production to start the sanctuary near the Catskill Mountains after experiences as an occasional undercover investigator for animal rights groups changed her life. The sanctuary survives on donations and with the support of Doug Abel, her husband, who works in film production.

"It is truly farm animals that are the most abused and exploited animals in the world. They suffer beyond our imagination and because they can't speak in ways that enable our comprehension, we do whatever we want to them," Ms Brown said.

As for Albie, the adjustments continue. This week Ms Brown, with her specialist, was considering a revised design for Albie's fourth limb. "I look at him and I can't imagine him having to go around without a leg on," she said.

"I want him to have something that makes him comfortable, that makes his quality of life better. I want him to have the best life possible."

[mikey]

Troubled Riverland abattoir closes
Posted 4 hours 52 minutes ago
Updated 4 hours 23 minutes ago

 
The operator of a Riverland abattoir has gone into receivership (file photo).

Map: Waikerie 5330
 More than 30 abattoir workers at Waikerie in the South Australian Riverland have been left without jobs.

The operator of the abattoir, Kerridale International Trading, has gone into receivership.

It had closed the facility recently, citing financial troubles.

The abattoir was linked with an outbreak of Q fever at Waikerie last year, in which a woman died.

Sixteen Vietnamese men and women who were told they could take holidays had been expecting to return to work this week.

But they now find themselves without an income.

A former Kerridale worker, Victor Pickford, says locals will not let them starve.

"Some personal friends have assisted the Vietnamese families with food," he said.

Abattoir owner Cleco Nominees blames adverse publicity for the company's demise.

Director Tony Burge says a New South Wales company which slaughters sheep and goats is interested in taking over the abattoir.

Loxton Waikerie Council has taken legal action against Cleco Nominees to try to stop the slaughter of goats.

That case is continuing.

[mikey]

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Meatworks demise blamed on US woes, public opposition
Posted 1 hour 15 minutes ago

Map: Waikerie 5330
 Waikerie abattoir operator, Kerridale International Trading, has blamed community opposition and poor market conditions in the United States for its economic downturn.

The company, which ran the abattoir linked to an outbreak of Q fever in Waikerie last year, has gone into receivership.

More than 30 former employees have no work, and South Australia has lost its only goat slaughtering site.

Kerridale director Mark Gothard says bad publicity and opposition from some locals and the Loxton Waikerie Council contributed to the company's demise.

"That cost us loads of money that we certainly weren't budgeting for," he said.

"To exacerbate the situation we had economic decline in the US which was our major market. We had also last year a very poor year in the second biggest market, so we probably had the worst period last year for sales of goat meats that we've probably seen in 10 or 15 years."

South Australian goat breeders say they will now have to send their goats to interstate abattoirs.

The owner of company Karbo Boer Goats, Pat Edson, says the impact of Kerridale's closure will be huge for suppliers.

Ms Edson says having goats slaughtered will now be an expensive cross-border exercise.

"The other options are, I guess the closest export works would now be Wodonga which is possible, not viable, to send them that far, it would be a huge amount of travel and costing ," she said.

[mikey]

Australia opens world's first goat museum
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 1:45PM BST 22/05/2008
A tiny town in outback Australia hopes to lift its fortunes with the world’s first museum dedicated to the humble goat.

PA
The museum will also feature a Goat Racing Hall of Fame
While the more exotic camel receives credit for its contribution to opening up Australia’s desert interior in the 19th century, goats were also vital to early settlers.

They provided not only meat and milk but were also used as miniature beasts of burden, the museum’s proponents say.

Their presence these days is less welcome – millions of feral goats inhabit outback areas, competing with sheep for food and contributing to soil erosion with their sharp hooves.


The museum, which it is hoped will open next year, will display old photographs, archive film footage and a stuffed goat or two.


It will also feature a Goat Racing Hall of Fame, which will tell the history of the unorthodox sport of goat racing, in which goats pull specially designed carts large enough to accommodate adult “jockeys”.


The museum is being planned by the town of Barcaldine, in the dry western reaches of Queensland.


The town, population 1,800, has formed a committee and aims to raise £150,000 in funding and sponsorship for the attraction.


It is the brainchild of solicitor John de Groot, who was a champion goat racer when he lived in Barcaldine as a child.


He now resides in Brisbane, but retains an interest in goats that some might regard as verging on the unhealthy.


“We used to ride them bareback, with a bridle,” he said yesterday [thurs]. “I had the most wonderful childhood because of my involvement with goats – I started racing at seven, on a goat called Thunder.”


“Australia was a nation of battlers and goats were crucial to the lives of working class families in the outback.


“They were the poor man’s cow. They provided meat and milk and entertainment, as pets and for races. We’re confident that this will be the first goat museum in the world.”


Dr de Groot is also writing a book, Goat Racing in Australia – Your Indispensable Guide – which will include goat racing tips.


Goats can be made to run faster by being tickled under the tail, or having the hairs on their back legs tweaked, he will reveal in the book.


The goat museum will be built next to the town’s other tourist attraction, the Workers' Heritage Centre, which commemorates a sheep shearers’ strike of the 1890s that led to the birth of the Australian Labor Party.


“We think the idea of the museum is absolutely wonderful,” said Vicki Lockie of the Barcaldine Tourist Information Centre.


The heyday of goat racing in Australia was the 1920s and 30s but the sport remains a highlight of the Barcaldine social calendar, forging a sense of community.


“We muster the goats in the wild and bring them in for training,” said Mrs Lockie. “Twice a week the school kids help train them. It drags them away from playing computer games indoors.”


Training a goat to accept a harness and pull a buggy is no mean feat. “It takes a fair bit of doing because they’re wild. Some of them are just too feral,” she said.

[mikey]

OK , fellow goat enthusiasts, here's the second half of my discourse concerning some reconsidered dos and don'ts of keeping caprine critters. As those of you who read Part I will likely recall, I've already discussed the number of does that (I think) make up the perfect farmstead herd ... told you how to avoid the pitfalls of "goatflation" . . . recommended qualities to look for when buying a good milk animal ... and advised you on where to keep your newly acquired charges once you get them home. (If you haven't looked at the first half of this feature, I suggest you pick up a copy of MOTHER NO. 82 and turn to page 34.)

And now that the preliminaries are out of the way, we can get on to some of the finer points of goat husbandry ... namely, breeding, milking, kid care, and home veterinary treatment. But before we launch into those subjects, let me reiterate something I said in Part 1: The following hints (most of which I've learned the hard way!) are meant only as suggestions-not as steadfast rules?to help you discover the most efficient and simplest means of rearing and handling your own milkers.

BRING ON THE KIDS
I used to tell folks to keep a buck around their homestead for breeding purposes. Now, however-having long tried in vain to deal with the cantankerous nature and malodrous scent of the male goat?I have to re tract that bit of poorly conceived advice, and offer in its place another, much more sensible, plan!

Why not get together with half a dozen or so other nanny owners in your community, and pool all of your resources to buy one exemplary buck that can serve all of your does. Then-and this is the tricky part!?see if you can't talk one of those other goat lovers into boarding (with the expenses shared by everyone, of course) "old whisker face" on his or her farm. Naturally, you'll have to go to the trouble of hauling your does over to this benevolent neighbor's barn at breeding time ... but-take my word for it that's a very small price to pay for keeping your backyard clean-smelling!

If you can't find someone magnanimous enough to care for a "collective" buck, I'd suggest you utilize artificial insemination (Al). This method is well suited to goat raising and is the very best-and least expensive -way to upgrade your herd. (Semen from some of the top breeders in the country is available for as little as $5 to $25 a unit.) Unfortunately, Al requires that you artificially inseminate your does, and it's sometimes hard to catch the females in heat ... but you'll have to in order to do this. In fact, some gals won't come into season unless there's a male goat on the premises. However, you can fool them. Just take an old rag and-during the fall breeding period?wipe it on a buck's head, where the horns should be, and along its hocks. Then hang the dripping-wit h? maleness cloth where the does can smell it. Within 48 to 72 hours, your ladies should be in heat.

Incidentally, while we're on the subject of breeding, there are two often- recommended, tricks" that I would not advise. First of all, don't try (by artificially creating a facsimile of the declining daylight hours typical of "heat" season) to bring your does into heat during their off-breeding period in the spring. I don't feel that the results warrant all the extra time and effort that are involved in this particular technique. You see, the percentage of does that settle (get pregnant) when bred under such conditions is usually small, and oftentimes the buck just isn't interested in mating during the spring.


 

[mikey]

May 25, 2008

The beginner’s guide to Arabia
From goat auctions to Arabian princesses, you never quite know what you’ll find in Oman. That’s reason enough to goSally Emerson
The weekly goat auction in Nizwa, the former capital of Oman, is a mixture of Crufts gone wild and a Wall Street trading floor, and everyone is far too busy to give me, a western woman, even a glance.

Some men hold staffs, dead ringers for Abraham, their brown faces deeply furrowed as they watch the display of struggling goats and cows. It’s like stumbling into the Old Testament.

A shaggy goat and its sleek, golden baby are dragged round and round the stone marketplace while the crowds demand to examine teeth and orifices; know age, weight, health. Close on their tail, a man staggers in carrying two black kids. Another tugs three, and traders yell out their questions and bids. The men haggle, the sheep bleat, the goats complain and the hungry calves groan. One Moses of a man swings around to tell us the price he paid, bright-eyed with glee about the deal. The little goat he has bought stands wagging its tail.

This is Oman, an eight-hour plane ride from London, a four-hour drive from the glitz of Dubai – and 2,000 years back in time. This is a country of austere desert and hard people, yet it is full of wonders. It has hilltop forts, sultans’ palaces, medieval villages growing papaya and pomegranates, and old dhows in which Omanis sailed the seas and became a great maritime people. Many here live as they have for millennia, though oil money and the reforms of the present sultan have brought fine roads, hospitals and schools. As a visitor, you can go camel racing, take dolphin-watching trips on a glamorous catamaran or see turtles laying their eggs at night.

The mystery still abides – the Arabian Nights world of Sinbad the Sailor. Here, lean men with the faces of prophets command the streets in long white gowns, a few sporting curved silver daggers on their belts. Behind them lie the mountains, in front the blue waters of the Gulf of Oman, with its dolphins and whales, and so many fish that the catch at the morning market is the gaudiest thing I saw in this monochrome nation, all glistening parrotfish, orange-red snapper, shimmering tuna.

The market fascinated me: Dubai I spent ages observing the traders on their upturned buckets, brown legs astride under their snowy dishdashas, presiding over their catch. I saw silvery tuna with gashes in their flanks, baby sharks barely a foot long, black sailfish that appeared to be made of leather – and a mass of greyish-white squid guarded by a plump man who looked so like his produce, I feared a genie might have transformed him. Later that evening, I ordered tuna in the restaurant at my hotel. Its flavour was delicate yet rich, sinfully at odds with Oman’s unworldliness.

I STAYED at the Chedi, in the Omani capital, Muscat, which is very 21st-century and thoroughly worldly, though with a low-key, zen style. From the banquettes by the infinity pool, you can lounge like an Arabian princess and sip mint lemonade while gazing over the blue pool to the beach and the green gulf.

I watched an English couple steel themselves before running bravely into the sea – then pause for a shocked moment, allowing themselves beatific smiles, and submerge. The water is balmy here – in summer, they have to chill the pool.

The hotel was full of couples. They can indulge in a Love Bath at the spa – a sunken affair soaked in oils, scattered with petals and well supplied with champagne and canapés. And how I loved returning to the Chedi each evening as the sun died down, swimming in the hot ocean and watching the couples gathering around the coal burners, the flames illuminating their faces and dancing among the palm trees, the water gardens and the fountains, as the smell of dinner wafted through the still air.

You must not, however, allow the Chedi’s sultry seductions to prevent you from getting out to explore the desert, the mountains, the wadis. Safe and clean, Oman is huge and stark and uplifting in its beauty – 120,000 square miles of it for just 2½m people.

The country’s tribal customs and its domination by Islam have helped to preserve its toughness. As you drive, you see watchtower after watchtower on the desolate brown hills, and only the occasional minaret of a mosque. In The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, TE Lawrence wrote: “Bedouin ways were hard even for those brought up to them, and for strangers terrible: a death in life.” And: “The common base of all the semitic creeds, winners or losers, was the ever-present idea of world worthlessness. Their profound reaction from matter led them to preach bareness, renunciation, poverty, and the atmosphere of this invention stifled the winds of the desert pitilessly.”

Out in the desert of Wahiba Sands, our Jeep jitterbugged over 300yd dunes, plunging down and up and down again. We stopped and I floundered on foot over their shifting slopes, causing avalanches of the caramel sand to collapse in crescents as the wind whipped my face.

Later, we ate sweet watermelon beside a rocky wadi named Bani Khalid. It was good to cool off from the obliterating 40C heat in the wadi’s turquoise waters, fed from a mountain stream, though the interest my swimming caused among the young men took the edge off the magic – and I was extremely well covered up, shirt and all. I wish I’d been allowed to swim in peace; the wadi’s surface skidded with red dragonflies and swooped with swallows. Little fish nibbled at my feet and, on the banks, wild goats drank.

You seldom see a woman in the streets and shops of Oman; if you do, she is swathed in black, like a shadow. It is as though the women have vanished, been stolen away, and all that is left is men, stately men, like angels in their crisp, clean white gowns and fetchingly embroidered caps – no boring white cloths for headdresses here.

BACK AT the goat market, however, the dishdashas are not so spotless and the long, lean faces are less remote – especially when butted by a grand grey bull that objects to being dragged by the horns around the stone arena.

Here, I do see a few women – Bedouin in black face masks, wrenching open the mouths of kids and calves. One wears a gold mask. A few westerners hang about on the edges, taking pictures and looking astonished. Their bright clothes look absurdly out of place, like something Doctor Who brought in.

If you want to time-travel, Oman is certainly the place. Less conservative than Saudi Arabia, much less westernised than Dubai, it is the perfect introduction to the Gulf states. Flying home, I felt refreshed – perhaps in part by the barrenness. I felt as though I’d been on a retreat, rather than just a holiday. It was even oddly agreeable to feel invisible after a while.

While Dubai, it is said, is losing its soul, Oman’s is still intact, and its tourism is just beginning.

[mikey]

Biggs tames the beast
published: Sunday | May 25, 2008

Paul H. Williams, Outlook Writer,Jamaica


Kirkland Thompson of Longwood district, St. Elizabeth, feeds a kid form a bottle after its mother rejected it.

The dog is man's best friend. So the saying goes. But for Kirkland 'Biggs' Thompson, it is not true. His best friend is a big, variegated ram goat named Charlie. And should anybody have any idea of coming between them, be prepared to get the butt of their rebuff.

Yet, they are not a figment of this writer's overactive imagination. They live in the quiet rural district of Longwood, near Lovely Point, St Elizabeth. The surroundings are humble - greenish goat droppings abound, and the musky odour of goats is strong in the air. For Charlie is only one in a stock of 45, including 15 bucks and 30 ewes.

first big breed goat

However, he's the king. He was accorded this royal status from the very moment, about four years ago, when Biggs first set eye upon him.

'Charlie is the first big breed goat I ever raise ... When I buy Charlie, some people say to me, why buy this goat for such a dear (expensive) price (but) when I see the quality of Charlie, I say to myself I must get this breed of goat, so I put out every effort to get Charlie," he recalls.

Well, he got Charlie and treats him as royalty, and the animal has come to expect nothing less. "Charlie is a special goat to me and when me talk to Charlie, Charlie tend to react to what I say to him ... when me feed the rest of the goats without Charlie getting feed, Charlie intend to buck down the place," Biggs explains.

CONVERSATIONS

To appease the arrogant beast, he would speak with him. "Charlie," he shouts, "hold on man. Your thing soon come up you know. So you don't have to worry. A coming with your feeding now." And Charlie would calm down.

Charlie, Biggs says, can be quite "mannersable", but like that between two people, their friendship is sometimes very tense, especially in the mating season when Charlie is in 'heat'. He becomes very aggressive and disobedient, especially when he sees the ewes going by. When he's released from his enclosure, he would chase the younger and weaker goats away. "Charlie would even kill every male offspring to get to the females."

And that's why one day, in Biggs' absence, Charlie committed a very desperate act. He butted down the metal gate of his pen and went out to satisfy his primal needs. "I remember keeping Charlie behind this (grille) gate, and I find Charlie buck it and split it in pieces. When I come and see it, believe you me, it was amazing. I have to call the (welder) and show him," Biggs recollects.

A goatherd for as long as he knows himself, Thompson was perhaps destined to spend his life among goats. He was born under the sign of Capricorn! He's half man and half goat. "Right now, if you ask me what would I do apart from this, nothing. You couldn't give me nothing else to do. From I was born I have been doing this. I don't know nothing else."

decent burial

Though business is not as brisk as he would want it to be, he says Charlie has got him to where he had wanted to be, in terms of the number of offspring Charlie has sired. And should Charlie die now by accident or illness, he would be accorded a decent burial. He won't be buried as a dog. No. There is going to be a gathering with food and drinks.

Despite Charlie's contribution to Biggs' well-being, sadly, the two will soon have to part company. You see, Charlie is in his prime, and in the goat-rearing business an animal fetches a better price at this stage, when he is healthy and very productive. Charlie's new owner will have to make a promise to Biggs, not to kill Charlie, at least not now. Whatever happens, he says, "Charlie is my boy, and that's it."

[mikey]

Neighborhood Goats Are Facing an Uncertain Future
by KRISTEN ARMSTRONG, Staff Writer
(Created: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 7:45 AM EDT)

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Carne is a Nigerian Dwarf goat that several North Arlington residents are keeping as a pet. County officials say Carne and another goat, Leche, can't stay. (Photo by Kristen Armstrong) 
 
What's an environmentally conscious and easy way to cut grass? For Arlington residents Bryant Nichols and Matt Haggerty, the answer was a pair of goats they bought on Craigslist.

But now, the county has stepped in, and the bleating duo, Carne and Leche, might be on their way back to the farm.

“We have until June 6 to get rid of them,” said Bill Daus, the owner of the property. “In [county zoning ordinance] section 5.A.2, it states you can't have livestock within 100 feet of a property line or road.”

But the goats' owners and other members of the house don't see the goats as livestock, and are trying to persuade the county to consider them as pets.

“We bought goat books and did lots of Internet research,” Nichols said. “The Arlington County Web site specified that swine and poultry were not allowed, so we thought we would have no problem with goats.”

Nichols and Haggerty bought the Nigerian Dwarf Carne and French Alpine Leche for $80 each from a farm in Nokesville, Va., and keep them in a fenced-off area in their back yard.

Although they've been using the goats' droppings to fertilize the garden, they said they are not using Carne and Leche to make money, as a farm would.

“Goats should be considered pets when they are kept for fun and as friends,” Nichols said. “Livestock animals are raised to be sold for profit. We never plan to make a financial profit on either Carne or Leche.”

(According to county spokesman Diana Sun, however, “the financial profit motive is not necessarily a definition” of livestock.)

And even though the goats escaped and ran down to the corner of Lee Highway and George Mason their first night in Arlington, they have been very well-behaved since then, Daus said.

“Originally I was a naysayer, but now I'm a supporter,” he said. “They don't smell at all. They're quieter than dogs, and make much less mess.”

“They are basically like a really shy, cute dog with no teeth that eats leaves, grass and weeds,” Nichols said.

The house's goat supporters have set up the Web site, www.saveourgoats.com (which has a live “goat cam”), to get people to sign petitions requesting that the county “exclude does (female goats) and wether (castrated male goats) from the definition of livestock.”

So far, they have 194 signatures, and hope to get 1,000 in the next two weeks.

What's the likelihood that the county will let Carne and Leche stay? “Anything is possible,” Sun said. “It's possible that the County Board would have to change the ordinance.”

But if the county doesn't allow the goats to remain in Arlington, Nichols, Haggerty and Daus are willing to battle to keep the pair.

“They're our pets now. We're attached to them,” Daus said. “We're really going to [fight] if we have to. We're ready to go to court for it.”

[mikey]

06/06/2008 Digg  Stumble Upon  Reddit  Facebook  Del.icio.us  Fark  Yahoo  Newsvine  Google  Font:
 PETTING ZOO HORROR STORY
Berlin Zoo Feeds Goat to Wolves
It's been a hard year for Berlin Zoo Director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz. First, he was accused of selling and mistreating animals. Then, he admitted he had killed cats with his bare hands. Now he let wolves rip a goat to shreds in front of zoo visitors.


 AP
Canadian wolves, such as the one pictured here in the wild, are being fed in Berlin's Zoo with goats from the petting zoo.
At the Berlin Zoo, it's a short distance between the petting zoo and the wolves' habitat. But it can apparently also be the distance between being lovingly caressed by children and being dismembered by bloodthirsty predators.

Crowds at the zoo were shocked Thursday as they watched wolves savagely jostle each other to get their piece of a recently killed goat.

The feeding of zoo animals to other creatures in the parks is an accepted practice in the European Union. And like those animals, this goat had already been killed before being placed in the wolves' habitat.

In simple terms, it's an issue of animal overflow in a man-made environment without any predators. As Ragnar Kühne, the zoo's curator, told the mass-circulation daily Bild: "When we have too many goats in the petting zoo, we usually give them to farms or private persons. But if we can't get rid of them, we have them appropriately slaughtered and fed to carnivores."

Although some people might find it troubling that the wolves were fed in broad daylight and right in front of zoo visitors, the real issue of controversy seems to be that it happened in the wake of a series of shocking and mistrust-fomenting revelations about this and other German zoos.

For one, it might strike some as strange that this goat -- which was in perfectly good health -- should be killed this way after Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, the zoo's director, told Die Welt a few months ago that the park didn't kill surplus hoofed animals and feed them to other animals. "We don't do this," he insisted. "But, of course, it might happen that a deer breaks its neck, and then we allow the corpse to be eaten."

A zoo spokesman later clarified the statement saying that Blaszkiewitz had been referring to "wild" hoofed animals, such as, antelopes, zebras and deer, rather than to "domestic" hoofed animals, such as sheep, goats, cows and pigs.

Then, in March, local Green Party politician Claudia Hämmerling filed a criminal complaint against Blaszkiewitz, accusing him of selling unwanted animals (more...)-- including a pygmy hippopotamus and a family of bears -- for slaughter and of letting tigers and jaguars be shipped to China, where they allegedly ended up being used for impotency cures. Blaszkiewitz has vehemently denied these charges, saying he was victim of a "smear campaign."


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 Soon after, Blaszkiewitz admitted to killing a number of wild kittens in 1991 by breaking their necks with his own hands, saying the animals could bear diseases threatening to the other animals. At the time, Blaszkiewitz defended his actions. "I still think it was the right thing to do," Blaszkiewitz told Die Welt in March. "Wild house cats can pose a big danger to people and animals, so they shouldn't be tolerated in (zoos)."

In addition, last month the animal-rights organization Peta filed another criminal complaint against Blaszkiewitz, alleging that he improperly treated 10 bears by not giving them sufficient living space in Tierpark Berlin, which he also oversees.

jtw/reuters

[mikey]

Goat farm producing natural, sustainable meat
Nancy Isles Nation
Article Launched: 06/07/2008 07:02:19 PM PDT


Click photo to enlargeGoats roam one of Big Oak Farm's pastures near Petaluma. Once focused on... (IJ photo/Alan Dep)«123»Big Oak Farms was a dairy producer for generations, but in recent years members of the Pomi family discontinued the milk operation and brought in beef cattle and goats. The change was key to keeping the 500-acre farm in the family and producing sustainable agricultural products that will make the operation viable for the next generation.
The Pomis were one of the first families to sign a contract with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust to guarantee that their land in Northern Marin near the Sonoma County border will remain agricultural forever.

In April 2007 the land was certified as organic, and in August 2007 the Pomis bought a herd of pure-bred Boer goat bucks and mixed-bred Boer does.

Goat might not be on a lot of dinner tables in the United States these days, but the Pomis say that is beginning to change. They say it's healthy and good for the environment and it's catching on.

"When you buy goat meat, you get something extremely healthy and fresh," said Helge Hellberg, executive director of Marin Organic. "It's good for family farms and you are helping the county. I think goat is underrated."

Hellberg said residents of Marin and the Bay Area will embrace the goat meat concept because they are aware of agricultural production issues and want to eat locally produced, naturally raised food.

"In Marin, they know it's an investment in their health and the health of the county," Hellberg said. "Marin is really far out when it comes to food diversity."

Cindy
Pomi runs the farm with her husband, Mark, his parents, Ron and Patty Pomi, and her sister-in-law, Kim, and her husband, Jim Naugle. Cindy Pomi said the family began planning the goat operation after it stopped dairy production and began the beef cattle business in 2004.
They diversified the business and now have about 180 does and 100 kids. The breeds are fast-growing animals that have a high percentage of meat.

The goats receive no hormones or antibiotics. They are harvested in six to eight months when they reach 75 to 80 pounds. Each goat yields about 40 pounds of meat. Customers can order it on the Big Oak Farms Web site and pick it up from a local butcher.

The goats are slaughtered humanely in a stress-free environment, according to Pomi, who grew up on a cattle ranch in the San Joaquin Valley and graduated from California Polytechnic State University.

A whole goat costs $300 and a half is $175, with additional charges for butchering, cutting and wrapping.

The meat is lean and higher in protein than beef or chicken, and has less fat, calories and cholesterol than other meats. Meat from young goats is tender and flavorful.

Pomi said raising animals for meat is something she has always known. "It's part of my life and it's part of my kids' life," she said.

Several other West Marin ranchers are raising goats for meat and say they complement other stock, eating thistles, Scotch broom and other plants that cows and sheep bypass.

"It's perfect nature," said Bill Niman, who raises cattle at his ranch in Bolinas.

In January, friends of Bill and Nicolette Niman hauled their herd to the ranch from Oregon to feed for the winter. By spring, 600 kids were born. Niman kept about 80 goats for harvest.

"They improved the pasture for the cattle that are also here," Niman said. "I think it is a very healthful and sustainable animal."

Niman, who is no longer associated with the Niman Ranch brand of beef and pork he created but remains a shareholder in the business, said goats are ideal for smaller farmers. He said they are labor-intensive and cannot be put into feed lots like cattle that are raised industrially.

"I think it's definitely the animal of the future," Niman said. "They are a benefit to the environment as well as the people eating them."

David Evans, whose Marin Sun Farms built its reputation on grass-fed beef, produces about 60 kids a year for harvest. He said it's a new meat to many people so there is a resistance to trying it. "In the past it's been more of a specialty ethnic-based meat," Evans said.

He said goats eat less than cows and help diversify the operation. "They are very durable animals and disease-resistant," Evans said.

Peter McNee, the chef at Poggio restaurant in Sausalito, occasionally serves goat as a special and recently included it on a spit-roasted meat cart that also offered suckling pig, rabbit and assorted game birds.

McNee said he likes to serve goat because when he lived in Italy it was a common food.

"It wasn't trendy or cool, it was what they ate," McNee said, adding that Spanish and Latino cultures also eat a lot of goat. "It's only beginning to catch on with the mainstream Bay Area but not mainstream America."

He said goat will never be an easy sell like steaks or chicken.


 

 

[mikey]

Charella goats cheese a winnerArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment Philip Johnson
June 10, 2008 12:00am

CHARLES Parsons has been breeding goats and making goats milk products in Mudgeeraba for the past 10 years under the label of Charella Farmstead Goats Cheese.

 The family is dedicated to the art of cheese making, winning gold awards at national and international competitions.

I was first introduced to their young, fresh goats curd many years ago and became an instant admirer, pairing it with simple salads of fresh peas and mint, roast baby beets, or my favourite way to enjoy this wonderful cheese – with baked fresh figs and vincotto.

Tagliatelle, goats fetta, fennel, peas & mint with breadcrumbs
Shaved baby beetroot, goats cheese & hazelnut salad
Fried goats fetta, serrano ham, figs & vincottoFossicking: Brisbane's Big Cheese BiteThe goats fetta is also a great cheese. Marinated with peppercorns, garlic and sunflower oil it's ideal to crumble over steamed broccolini or asparagus with ligurian olives.
In addition to exporting their breeding stock and supplying cheeses to top end restaurants, the Parsons also have a stall at two farmers markets on the Gold Coast, where you can buy the fresh curd and marinated fetta as well as probiotic yoghurt and fresh goats milk.

The Mudgeeraba markets are held at the showgrounds on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, and at The Marina Mirage on the first and third Saturday.