Welsh town makes goat task force
This place is taking off the kid gloves.
A Welsh town that’s been held hostage by a herd of bullying billy goats since early in the COVID-19 lockdown has formed a task force to fight back against the out-of-control animals, according to local news reports.
Llandudno, Wales, made headlines in 2020 when a pack of Kashmiri goats from the nearby coast wandered into town and set up shop in its vacant, locked-down streets.
The goats proceeded to procreate, and have since been packing the local streets, trampling bushes and even standing on roofs.
Authorities have reacted by splitting the group up, sending a few dozen to participate in “conservation grazing projects” nearby, munching on invasive plant species.
But at last count some hundred goats remained, and local officials this week voted to dedicate a task force to managing them.
“Just to emphasize, these are feral goats. They are not owned by anyone,” City Councillor Chris Cater said at a meeting of municipal officials this week.
In pre-pandemic times, the goats were native to the Great Orme headland, an outcropping jutting into the Irish sea. Since the 2020 lockdown, they’ve wandered into the adjacent town, and nearly to Penrhyn Bay, the next town over.
“I was very worried about Batty’s plant nursery [on the outskirts of Penrhyn Bay], but they didn’t get that far,” Cater said.
“During the pandemic, they really uplifted the people of Llandudno. They were a joy to see, and they gave us a lot of good publicity, and I think we have to do the right thing for them,” Cater added.
“Frankly, we should be very proud to have these wonderful animals on our doorstep,” Councillor Geoff Stewart added. “They are nowhere else in the UK, and it has been asked that we set up a group to establish a way forward for [them].”
The task force is set to begin its work within the next month.
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