Rescued Goats Put to Work at Golf Course

by Lisa Poisso · 2010-08-05 15:00:00 UTC
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Would you consider chowing down on your favorite dish to be "work?" I'm eyeing a big bowl of fresh picante sauce and a bag of chips, and my vote is "no" — and I think the goats who've been put to work munching weeds on a North Dakota golf course would heartily agree. Previously slated for slaughter, Lucifer and his four companions were rescued by the golf course superintendent and put to work munching up to 3 percent of their body weight in weeds every day.

Practical minds have been putting ruminants to work clearing weeds and foliage from areas as diverse as graveyards, golf courses and freeway right-of-ways. Goats are cheap. They're efficient. Even folks who have interests in mind other than the welfare of the goats see the advantages of putting them to work. "It's better for the country to use goats than to use all that poison that runs off into the water," said Bill Laning, president of the American Meat Goat Association in Kerrville, Texas, in an article in the Bismarck Tribune. "We're going to see more and more goats used as time goes on because it's 'green.'"

Some folks question whether animals should be put to work in this way — but I have to reach back into that tasty bowl-of-chips-and-picante analogy. Is living in a 1,000-square-foot pen that's moved regularly and specifically in order to provide the goats with access to a food source they gobble with gusto really an objectionable instance of unnatural "work?" I'm not so sure the goats feel coerced; this entire scenario sounds to me like an incredible example of a naturally symbiotic relationship. Golfers golf, goats munch ... And we all live happily ever after. Fore!

Photo credit: edenpictures

Lisa Poisso is an award-winning parenting and family writer who has written about green issues for years.
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