Mysterious case of tasered goat

Authorities have spent a year and almost $30,000 investigating the curious case of a tasered goat.

Oamaru police were called to deal with the feral goat after a small dog cornered it in someone’s garage on December 1, 2016.

‘‘Unfortunately it was pretty stressed out and quite uncooperative, so I tased it,’’ Oamaru Senior Constable Carl Pedersen told The Press at the time.

Pedersen said the goat, with its large horns, had damaged the garage and there were concerns it would escape back onto State Highway 1 and endanger motorists, as it had earlier in the

''... it was pretty stressed out and quite uncooperative, so I tased it." Senior Constable Carl Pedersen

day, evading animal control. The goat was later euthanised. That incident has sparked a 14-month Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) investigation, at a cost of $28,303.56.

Police have declined to release information about the case while MPI, which oversees animal welfare, investigated.

While the department remains tight-lipped over the scope of the inquiry, it is understood part of it involves how many times Pedersen tasered the goat.

Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal MPI became aware of the incident in late January 2017.

Two welfare officers spent five months – totalling 450 hours – investigating. It did not stop there.

The file was sent for legal review in August 2017, with an inhouse legal review and a peer review completed by November the same year. That same month more legal advice was sent to Crown Solicitors, with further advice sought last month. The case continues.