New York Daily News

BAAAA HUMBUG!

Escaped herd of goats chews up scenery in Idaho

- BY PETER SBLENDORIO

Here’s something that’ll really get a resident’s goat.

A massive herd of about 100 goats randomly showed up in a West Boise, Idaho, suburb Friday and promptly began to devour the greenery on people’s properties.

That included going lawn to lawn and grazing on grass, ravaging bushes in people’s gardens and pulling down leaves from trees, NBC affiliate KTVB reported. The sprawling horde of animals arrived about 7 a.m. and lined the street for over an hour.

Animal Control made it to the scene at about 7:30 a.m. after being told there were only 50 goats in the area, but did not have a big enough truck to pick up all the animals upon learning there were dozens more than expected, a spokeswoma­n for the Idaho Humane Society told the Daily News.

The Animal Control officer then directed traffic for the next hour until a company called We Rent Goats — which uses goats for community-serving purposes such as eating an overabunda­nce of weeds — finally came to the rescue at around 8:30 a.m. and managed to corral them onto a truck.

“The goats seemed fairly happy just chomping away on the lawns, so I don’t think it was too difficult,” Idaho Human Society communicat­ions manager Kristine Schellhaas told The News.

It’s unclear if the herd belonged to We Rent Goats specifical­ly, but the Humane Society confirmed the animals are owned by a company that uses goats to eat excess grass and plants and somehow got loose Friday.

The strange spectacle seemed to be mostly enjoyed by the residents of the neighborho­od, as many stood outside and watched as the dozens of goats accumulate­d on the lawns.

 ?? RUTH BROWN/AP ?? Homeowner in West Boise, Idaho, woke up to more than 100 goats grazing on the front lawn Friday.
RUTH BROWN/AP Homeowner in West Boise, Idaho, woke up to more than 100 goats grazing on the front lawn Friday.

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