Raise a toast to the goats with the most
A pair of goats which both survived harrowing ordeals have something to bleat about after being nominated for a national award.
Two residents at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Boughton Monchelsea were shortlisted for Rescue Animal of the Year as part of the Daily Mirror’s Animal Hero Awards for those who have shown outstanding courage in a time of crisis. Among them was threeyear-old Lucky, who was left to drown in a pond with his throat slit and tail cut off when he was just a month old.
He was rescued by a passerby and taken in by the RSPCA, but even after he was rehomed the cruelty continued. He was put up for sale and tethered by a rope that injured his back legs. When he was brought to Buttercups two years ago, he was named Lucky.
Also nominated was Diesel, an eight-year-old pygmy goat dumped on a roundabout covered in oil that had also got into his lungs.
Bob Hitch, co-founder of the Wierton Road sanctuary, said: “It took 15 baths to get him clean and then his hair began to fall out and we saw the burns on his body. He looked like a plucked chicken and had trouble breathing but has recuperated well and pulled through.
“We have 150 goats and a lot of them have come through extreme cruelty, neglect and abandonment.
“These animals are heroes because of the suffering they have been through, yet the ones that have suffered the most seem to give the most love back. It is most extraordinary.”
The sanctuary is the only registered goat welfare charity in the UK and has more than 60 volunteers.
Mr Hitch and assistant manager Gower McCarthy attended the finals at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Wednesday, when Britain’s Got Talent judge and animallover Amanda Holden gave out the gongs in 11 categories.
Diesel and Lucky, despite making the final three, narrowly missed out on the top prize.
To find out how you can help, or to foster or adopt a goat, visit www.buttercups.org.uk.