Goats! For a limited time only.

As you may recall, I left a link to an area newspaper regarding an emu that escaped a farm. The farmer said that the emu was open game for any hunter. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t find the emu and there are no updates. And though I am tempted, there are no puns about the Vice President and his shooting abilities with birds.

The link is now defunct, primarily because the newspaper doesn't use permalinks or archives. They also forbid the use of their articles “by any means not yet known or yet to be invented.” So I am going to go the route that this invention is known of and therefore exempt from its warning. Plus the public deserves to know the truth…especially if it involves goats, tranquilizers, duct tape, and the local authority. Personally, my favorite part is where the policeman admired the goats simultaneous jumping, stating that “[i]t was almost poetic.”

“Goat escapees lead officers on merry chase”

Two escaped “jumping” goats managed to elude authorities for a few days until officers were able to subdue them.

[The police] reported the goats had jumped out of a drop-in cattle pen while being transported in a pickup truck from the sale barn to their would-be home…on Saturday.

Concerned that the goats had not been caught by Monday and fearful that a hapless motorist might hit one of them, the police here mounted an all out effort to corral the animals.

The goats led the major and nine others on a merry chase all over town Monday until the animals were subdued three hours later.

[A detective] even used tranquilizer darts on the animals, shooting them from the back of a four-wheeler while in hot pursuit. However, [the police] reported it did little to slow them down.

[The police] said he finally decided to call in the experts, and it wasn’t long before Grove resident and cattleman [local farmer]and his helper…were on the scene with lassos in hand to help close the case of the rogue goats.

Using all resources, the goats were finally cornered but jumped away from their would-be captors. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said [the police]. “They both jumped at the same time. It was almost poetic.”

As the goats jumped, [the farmer] managed to grab one of the animals in mid-air and the officers helped wrestle the fighting captive to the ground where they duct taped its legs so it couldn’t get away.

The other goat bought itself another hour of freedom before finally being caught at the Village.

Both animals were returned, unharmed, to their owner.

Source: "Goat escapees lead officers on merry chase." The Grove Sun Daily. 3 April 2006 <http://www.grovesun.com/story3.html>