Philosophy
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Urban Goat Rides the Subway and Struts the Streets of NYC - YouTube
Published on Apr 9, 2012
Cocoa the goat spends most of her time at her cottage in New Jersey, but at times this urban goat craves the hustle and bustle of the big city- It's clear that this goat is far from ordinary. Cocoa is used to the big bright lights of the city, but many on-lookers are not, she has in her own right become a bit of a celebrity as she struts down the street.
Owner Cyrus Fakroddin talks about his interesting choice for a pet "The main thing about Cocoa is I take her to the farm, she hates goats.
Once a month, she makes a trip to the farm, she hates goats. Goats hate her. The farmer said she doesn't even know, Cocoa doesn't even know she is a goat and you see that in her, but she loves hanging out with people.
Like with us, she's got all this stuff to eat, but what she really wants to do is sit here, hang out with us. She doesn't want to go graze or anything. Any other goat would be, I'm out of here and they're there, but not her. She doesn't like goats. She doesn't like farms.
She likes the people in the city. Strange goat, but I like her."From trolling central park, a ride on the subway, to little Italy, there's no where off limits to the famous urban goat, who prefers the concrete jungle over her more traditional habitat
Owner Cyrus Fakroddin talks about his interesting choice for a pet "The main thing about Cocoa is I take her to the farm, she hates goats.
Once a month, she makes a trip to the farm, she hates goats. Goats hate her. The farmer said she doesn't even know, Cocoa doesn't even know she is a goat and you see that in her, but she loves hanging out with people.
Like with us, she's got all this stuff to eat, but what she really wants to do is sit here, hang out with us. She doesn't want to go graze or anything. Any other goat would be, I'm out of here and they're there, but not her. She doesn't like goats. She doesn't like farms.
She likes the people in the city. Strange goat, but I like her."From trolling central park, a ride on the subway, to little Italy, there's no where off limits to the famous urban goat, who prefers the concrete jungle over her more traditional habitat
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Standard YouTube License
Urban Goat Rides the Subway and Struts the Streets of NYC - YouTube
Urban Goat Rides the Subway and Struts the Streets of NYC
Published on Apr 9, 2012
Cocoa the goat spends most of her time at her cottage in New Jersey, but at times this urban goat craves the hustle and bustle of the big city- It's clear that this goat is far from ordinary. Cocoa is used to the big bright lights of the city, but many on-lookers are not, she has in her own right become a bit of a celebrity as she struts down the street.
Owner Cyrus Fakroddin talks about his interesting choice for a pet "The main thing about Cocoa is I take her to the farm, she hates goats.
Once a month, she makes a trip to the farm, she hates goats. Goats hate her. The farmer said she doesn't even know, Cocoa doesn't even know she is a goat and you see that in her, but she loves hanging out with people.
Like with us, she's got all this stuff to eat, but what she really wants to do is sit here, hang out with us. She doesn't want to go graze or anything. Any other goat would be, I'm out of here and they're there, but not her. She doesn't like goats. She doesn't like farms.
She likes the people in the city. Strange goat, but I like her."From trolling central park, a ride on the subway, to little Italy, there's no where off limits to the famous urban goat, who prefers the concrete jungle over her more traditional habitat
Owner Cyrus Fakroddin talks about his interesting choice for a pet "The main thing about Cocoa is I take her to the farm, she hates goats.
Once a month, she makes a trip to the farm, she hates goats. Goats hate her. The farmer said she doesn't even know, Cocoa doesn't even know she is a goat and you see that in her, but she loves hanging out with people.
Like with us, she's got all this stuff to eat, but what she really wants to do is sit here, hang out with us. She doesn't want to go graze or anything. Any other goat would be, I'm out of here and they're there, but not her. She doesn't like goats. She doesn't like farms.
She likes the people in the city. Strange goat, but I like her."From trolling central park, a ride on the subway, to little Italy, there's no where off limits to the famous urban goat, who prefers the concrete jungle over her more traditional habitat
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Category
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License
Standard YouTube License
Urban Goat Rides the Subway and Struts the Streets of NYC - YouTube
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Doritos-Eating Goat Is Already Winning The Super Bowl - Business Insider
For the sixth year in a row, Doritos is crowdsourcing its two Super Bowl ads. Five finalists have been selected and we at Business Insider were so taken with one spot that we had to announce our endorsement of what we think is the clear winner: the Doritos goat.
Finalist Ben Callner said that his goat-owning friend (and eventual ad co-writer) Steve Colby inspired the spot. "So my buddy came in, and he literally just kind of off-handed said, 'Hey, my goat eating and crunching on food is really funny,'" Callner said in a making of video. "And that was it. 'OK, that was a really random sentence, thank you.' And so we Googled 'goats eating chips,' and we cracked up."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/doritos-eating-goat-is-already-winning-the-super-bowl-2013-1?op=1#ixzz2IBvS4uCy
Source:
Doritos-Eating Goat Is Already Winning The Super Bowl - Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/doritos-eating-goat-is-already-winning-the-super-bowl-2013-1
Goats Learn to Ride Bikes
Whatever next. Now we all know goats are inquisitive and clever creatures, but this photo of a man riding his bike with a goat on his back is one of the strangest sights we have seen for a long time.
To think all this time we’ve been using trailers, when we could have been training our goats to ride bikes. Mind you, we wouldn’t fancy it with a large Anglo-Nubian billy...
Goats Learn to Ride Bikes
Source: The Anglo Nubian Goat Society
Goats on Surf boards
Surfing Goat Takes To The Water
We’ve seen goats in trees, goats riding bikes, now meet Goat-ee the surfing goat. Goat-ee stunned beachcombers on Grover Beach in California by surfing on his owners surfboard. The two-year-old is the one and only surfing goat in the world. She likes to surf with her fellow human surfers and cannot get enough of it.
Source: The Anglo Nubian Goat Society
Pets 101- Pygmy Goats - YouTube
Uploaded on Dec 20, 2010
For more Pet knowledge, visit http://animal.discovery.com/petsource/#mkcpgn=ytapl1 | Pygmy goats are a smaller version of the traditional goat. You don't have to milk them and they are extremely docile, making them great for petting and hugging!
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Standard YouTube License
Source:
Pets 101- Pygmy Goats - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3fxgi7F_qI
Nursery Rhymes - Baa Baa Black Sheep - YouTube
Uploaded on Dec 20, 2007
http://www.rajshri.com
Here is one of the most popular nursery rhymes of all times. Visit the above link to enjoy many more.
Here is one of the most popular nursery rhymes of all times. Visit the above link to enjoy many more.
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License
Standard YouTube License
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Nursery Rhymes - Baa Baa Black Sheep - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEHFFnV3RY
Monkey and Goat show Rabwah Pakistan ahmadiyya - YouTube
Uploaded on Jan 15, 2008
Monkey and Goat Show opposite to Khan baba shop in Goal Bazar in Rabwar Pakistan on 1/1/2008.
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License
Standard YouTube License
Monkey and Goat show Rabwah Pakistan ahmadiyya - YouTube
Goat and Monkey - YouTube
posted on Dec 18, 2009
For details click - http://www.indiavideo.org/tamilnadu/travel/monkey-playing-with-goat-3379.php#...
Video by Prathap V. K. of Invis Multimedia.
Video by Prathap V. K. of Invis Multimedia.
Source:
Goat and Monkey - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWw5S80ObJc
Monkey & Goat on rope - YouTube
An amazing video of goat climbing ladder, than walk on rope and do more while monkey sits on top of it.
Source:
Monkey & Goat on rope - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODfNCouWB-4
16 Goats In A Tree - YouTube
Uploaded on Apr 6, 2007
Out in Morocco between Marrakesh and Essaouira, goats eating in a tree.
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Standard YouTube License
16 Goats In A Tree - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQev3UoGp2M
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
California man surfs with his goats
Dana McGregor says he takes his goats everywhere, including the beach. McGregor decided earlier this week to to put his furry friends on a surf board together to see if how well they could handle the waves. (July 12)
Subscribe to the Associated Press: http://bit.ly/APYouTube
Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juBq3kYmo0A
Quote
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Goatscaping Remediation Service
Custom Landscape Bio-Remediation Using Living and Sustainable Systems
Goats have been used as a valuable land-clearing tool for centuries.
Recently the popularity of such environmentally safe methods has introduced a quickly growing industry wherewith seriously harmful chemicals can be eliminated in favor of soil-building and balancing sustainable systems.
Over-abundant vegetation can be reduced in fire prone areas and those less desirable weeds considered invasive can be balanced and managed by use of strategically applied goats.
Using Management Intensive Browse (MiB)...
Go Goats! Increase Tilth*, Decrease Fire Danger, Eliminate need for Herbicide Use.
*Tilth can refer to two things:
1. Tillage and
2. a measure of the health of soil.
Good tilth is a term referring to soil that has the proper structure and nutrients to grow healthy crops.
Soil in good tilth is loamy, nutrient-rich soil that can also be said to be friable because optimal soil has a mixture of sand, clay and organic matter that prevents severe compaction.
Farmers will sometimes make sure that their crop rotation is that of which will allow good seed bedding along with a strong root system for proper nutrient disbursement throughout various soil depths.
Why Goat Scape?
1. Hoof Prints As hoof prints are left by the browsing ruminants the hardened crust is softened in areas where rain runs off without soaking in due to lack of animal impact. The "dimples" left behind are perfect divets for seed to be caught in. Water is also caught in these holes and since they are goat-hoof shaped the moisture is able to penetrate the soil from beneath the top crust which keeps it from evaporating. Water is retained by manure and stalks mixed in.
2. Tilth The Underground kingdom is built up based on the microbial life (fungi) which feeds the plants. This is the most important element in the soil- the organisms which process manure and dried plant matter into nutrients for plants.
3. Succession Ragweed (kochia)/annuals feed perennials: shade the ground
4. Revitalize Old Brush Brush needs periodic pruning or the growth atropies and the plant becomes tired, unable to push out new growth. Plant then becomes stagnant and withers away Examples being: Ephedra, Currant, Salt Bush,
5. Clear Rip Rap on dams With the availability of a balanced diet goats can clear areas with rough terrain given high stocking density. Pressure can be applied without stress on the animal.
6. Clearing Brush Exposes Rodents Holes are less desirable due to skylights created by goat hooves and are more exposed to predators such as coyotes, bobcat and raptors.
7. Fire Remediation Old brush and crowded stands are potential fire hazards. Quick growth of rainfed annuals can burn quickly and flare out of control.
8. Creates Access Property/trails are made accessable with goat clearing and becomes open and inviting.
9. Revitalize Cleared Land Land that has been disturbed by machinery loses vitality. Goats go through and break up the soil, fertilize, and energize the land aiding revegetaion. They provide the nutrients for the mychorriza to flourish and aid plant habitation.
10. Parkification Goats clear areas creating space where children can explore and play. They create shade trees, which have a neater appearance and can be enjoyed (especially in the summertime heat). More fertilizer spread evenly over the area allowing for denser perennial growth which prevent annual weeds from invading.
11. Pollen, Allergies, Poison Ivy Goats Remove vast stands of irritating pollen thus providing people with occupiable outdoor air quality and an improved quality of life. Air blowing through these Goatscaped lands do not pick up the allergens which affect all living working and enjoying down wind. Goats eat Poison Ivy and over time, with pressure, can erradicate some tough stuff.
12. Community Goatscaping creates space where people can come together. Goatscaping is also a wonderful way to meet your neighbors. It makes people smile, it brings busy people together in unity to see a natural approach to landcare.
13. Economy Goats clear land quicker and over more radical terrain than people can, giving you more benefit for the price. They are a positive improvement which balance the land as they work making repeated applications shorter in duration as change is effected.
Source:
Horned Locust Goatscaping Remediation Service
http://sunstarherbs.com/Goatscaping.html
This blog has no affiliation with with the company:
Contact:
Amanita Thorp
505-917-9885
Amanita@sunstarherbs.net
Goatscaping
Free-range landscaping with goats
Exploring a new trend in green agri-business: using goats to clear land and trim weeds.
By Sean Deskin, Local Correspondent
SR. CABRO, THE GOATKEEPER: Pen, ink, pastels, colored pencils. (Photo: Sean Deskin)
Seeking help from the animal kingdom for emissions-free landscaping is a growing trend in agricultural business, according to The Wall Street Journal. Homeowners, businesses and parks departments across the nation are employing goats for land clearing and removing brush and weeds.
The use of herbivores (sheep and cows can be called on, too) for landscape management is a technique that predates the gas-powered-lawn equipment era and is an approach that has changed little for many years in some places.
Farmers in India, for example, often employ goatherds and their charge to clear the fields after harvest. Their manure is a natural fertilizer and by the time the annual monsoon season is over, the fields are once again ready for planting.
To start a goat-powered lawn service, the first thing you need is the vision, and the goats.
There are many benefits of this approach to landscaping within suburban and urban areas.
Goats can be trained to focus on specific types of weeds and can easily clear steep slopes where heavy equipment can't reach and nuzzle into tight spots where gas-powered weed eaters can't squeeze, like corners and around tree roots.
Also, most people prefer the sounds of goat baying and munching to the wasp nest-in-a-tin-can sound of a fleet gas operated lawn tools.
To top it off, these services provide on-site composting and fertilizing. Ah, just smell the roses.
Source:
Goatscaping: Free-range landscaping with goats | MNN - Mother Nature Network
http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/texas/local-blog/goatscaping-free-range-landscaping-with-goats
Exploring a new trend in green agri-business: using goats to clear land and trim weeds.
By Sean Deskin, Local Correspondent
SR. CABRO, THE GOATKEEPER: Pen, ink, pastels, colored pencils. (Photo: Sean Deskin)
Seeking help from the animal kingdom for emissions-free landscaping is a growing trend in agricultural business, according to The Wall Street Journal. Homeowners, businesses and parks departments across the nation are employing goats for land clearing and removing brush and weeds.
The use of herbivores (sheep and cows can be called on, too) for landscape management is a technique that predates the gas-powered-lawn equipment era and is an approach that has changed little for many years in some places.
Farmers in India, for example, often employ goatherds and their charge to clear the fields after harvest. Their manure is a natural fertilizer and by the time the annual monsoon season is over, the fields are once again ready for planting.
To start a goat-powered lawn service, the first thing you need is the vision, and the goats.
There are many benefits of this approach to landscaping within suburban and urban areas.
Goats can be trained to focus on specific types of weeds and can easily clear steep slopes where heavy equipment can't reach and nuzzle into tight spots where gas-powered weed eaters can't squeeze, like corners and around tree roots.
Also, most people prefer the sounds of goat baying and munching to the wasp nest-in-a-tin-can sound of a fleet gas operated lawn tools.
To top it off, these services provide on-site composting and fertilizing. Ah, just smell the roses.
Source:
Goatscaping: Free-range landscaping with goats | MNN - Mother Nature Network
http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/texas/local-blog/goatscaping-free-range-landscaping-with-goats
Goats: The new first line of defence against weeds?
Goatscaping
Goats: The new first line of defense against weeds?
A new breed of four-legged, furry gardeners arrived in Kamloops Monday to graze through the city’s weed problem. Grass-guzzling goats will save the city about $500 a hectare and may soon replace the inmates who hand pick the problem plants.
“It’s another tool in the toolbox for managing noxious weeds,” said Kelly Johnston, a city spokesman.
The city brought in about 440 goats in a pilot project exploring this alternative method to eliminating invasive weeds, he said. Rocky Ridge Vegetation Control supplied the hungry crew that started feasting Monday in Kenna Cartwright Park.
The company has been contracting their goats out for about a dozen years, said owner Conrad Lindblom. The goats work during the four-month grazing season every year, he said. The company mostly operates in northern Alberta and northern B.C.
“It’s working really well,” he said.
Before the goats arrived, inmates from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre picked the weeds in the park by hand, said Mr. Johnston, as part of the facility’s prisoner work program. The process was lengthy. Prisoners hand pulled the plants, bagged them, hauled the bags out of the park, and then someone still had to bring the bags to the dump.
The goats can do the job faster. They will work two shifts daily, he said, taking an unusual lunchtime break – not for eating, but from the heat. They are expected to devour approximately three hectares a day, he said, completing the trial 33-hectare area in eight to 12 days. It would take the prisoners much longer than 10 days to go through the same amount of land, he said.
Not only are they slower, but the prisoners cost the city more. The animal and human gardeners are paid by completed hectares, said Mr. Johnston, not by the hour.
When participants in the prison work program hand pulled the weeds, the city paid about $800 a hectare, he said. The goats only cost $300. Over 33 hectares in the pilot project, that is more than $16,000 in savings.
The goats are also much more qualified for this job.
The workplace is hilly and mountainous, said Mr. Johnston. This makes it difficult to use methods like hand pulling, mowing, or spraying herbicides – alternatives to herbicides are preferred under the city’s integrated pest-management program.
“The goats just eat the weeds and then take them with them,” he said.
The free meal does not harm the goats, said their owner. They can eat a certain amount of toxins from toadflax and other pesky plants. The toxins can not make up more than 20 per cent of their diet, said Mr. Lindblom, but goats are natural self-regulators.
“Goats seem to know what they can tolerate and what they can’t,” he said. “If it’s too much, then they just go on eating something else.”
Their digestive system is ideal because it destroys the seeds during digestion, said Mr. Johnston.
Their first day on the job was a success. Next year, Mr. Johnston said he hopes to co-ordinate efforts with other land managers nearby and have the goats cover a larger area.
“If it goes well, we’ll definitely have them back.”
The biggest obstacle to their return may be public perception. If taxpayers don’t want to see the goats in parks, he said, then the city may opt for another route next summer.
Mr. Johnston said he isn’t worried that the goats will fail to eat the weeds, because they come with a strong track record. But, it is always a possibility and, coupled with a poor public welcome, the project could still be scrapped, he said.
ALEKSANDRA SAGAN
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jul. 09 2012
Source:
Goats: The new first line of defence against weeds? - The Globe and Mail
'Goat man' in Utah mountains identified as hunter
By Brian Skoloff
Associated Press
Related Stories
Jul 24:
Video: California man surfs with his goats
SALT LAKE CITY -- A man spotted dressed in a goat suit among a herd of wild goats in the mountains of northern Utah has been identified as a hunter preparing for a Canadian archery season.
After a hiker spotted the so-called goat man on July 15 in the mountains above Ogden, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City, wildlife officials said they wanted to talk to the person to be certain he was aware of the dangers as hunting season approaches.
They speculated he might have been a wildlife enthusiast who just wanted to get as close as possible to the goats. A few days after the spotting, wildlife authorities received an anonymous call from an "agitated man" who simply said, "Leave goat man alone. He's done nothing wrong."
This week, however, the mystery was solved.
Phil Douglass of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said he received a call Monday from a 57-year-old Southern California hunter who explained he was merely trying out his goat suit in preparation for a mountain goat hunt in Canada next year.
"He gave me enough details about the area and the situation that it made me feel confident this was him," Douglass said.
"In talking to him, I felt he was very knowledgeable, a very experienced hunter. He's hunted internationally," Douglass added. "My concern all along was that this person needed to understand the risks, and certainly after talking to him, I felt he was doing the best he could to understand and mitigate those risks."
The man did not identify himself, Douglass said, noting the hunter was concerned for his safety after widespread media coverage of the sighting, first reported by the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.
Coty Creighton, 33, spotted the goat man July 15 during his hike. He said he noticed something odd about one goat that was trailing behind the rest.
"I thought maybe it was injured," Creighton said last week. "It just looked odd."
He said he pulled out binoculars to get a closer look at the goats about 200 yards away and was shocked. The man appeared to be acting like a goat while wearing a crudely made costume, which had fake horns and a cloth mask with cut-out eye holes, Creighton said.
"We were the only ones around for miles," he said. "It was real creepy."
Douglass said 60 permits will be issued for goat hunting season in that area, which begins in September, and he had worried the man in the goat suit might be accidentally shot or could be attacked by a real goat.
He said the hunter described the goat costume as merely a hooded painter's uniform and a fleece.
Douglass said wildlife officials encourage archery hunters to practice their skills and to "get themselves in a position where they make a clean and humane shot."
"That's exactly what he was doing," Douglass said. "There are laws that require people to wear hunter orange during rifle hunts, but people do wear camo during archery hunts."
Source:
'Goat man' in Utah mountains identified as hunter - San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_21151121/goat-man-utah-mountains-identified-hunter?source=most_emailed
All But One Claim Dismissed in Suit Filed
Mountain Goat Goring Death
Experienced hiker and registered nurse Bob Boardman was gored to death by a 370-pound mountain goat in Olympic National Park in October, 2010.
Boardman's wife, Susan Chadd, accompanied him on the fateful outing, and in the aftermath of her husband's untimely demise filed a lawsuit against the federal government claiming the "National Park Service failed to act on numerous complaints regarding this particular animal, failed to follow its own policies and procedures regarding hazardous animals, failed to relocate or euthanize the goat, and failed to properly respond once the attack had been reported," according to documents filed in the case. Seattle Weekly's Keegan Hamilton described Boardman's death in a Daily Weekly post from August, 2011:
"Around 2004, Olympic's Wildlife Branch Chief and biologist Dr. Patti Happe, and other park officials, became aware of increasing reports of habituated behavior of mountain goats in the Hurricane Ridge area of the park," court documents state. "By 2006, the park began receiving reports of aggressive behavior by the mountain goats, including 'standing their ground, following or chasing humans, pawing the ground, and rearing up.'"
"[A]fter the park received further reports of increased habituation and possibly aggressive behavior from mountain goats, park rangers and field personnel hiked into the areas with high reported goat-human interactions to observe and monitor the goats. They found that the goats were 'demonstrating progressively habituated and sometimes aggressive behavior,'" court documents continue. "In response to their observations and other reports from visitors, the park service began providing visitors written and verbal warnings about the goats' aggressive behavior. Warning signs were also posted at trailheads. Efforts on warning visitors were focused on the Klahanne Ridge (where the attack eventually occurred) and nearby Hurricane Ridge."
In particular, the goat that killed Boardman had raised the concern of park and wildlife officials.
"In June of 2009, the Wildlife Branch Chief Dr. Patti Happe, sent an email to Olympic's Superintendent, Karen Gustin, the ranger assigned to the Hurricane and Klahanne Ridge areas, Sanny Lustig, and others," court documents state. "Dr. Happe wrote to give an 'update on the aggressive billy goat situation at Hurricane Ridge, and start the conversation about additional management options.' She noted that he has 'been a problem for several years,' that he is 'behaving in an increasing aggressive manner,' and she thinks he 'now perceives himself as being the dominant critter.' Dr. Happe expressed concern that 'it may only be an [sic] matter of time until someone is hurt.'"
"The following year, on July 5, 2010, Ranger Lustig sent another email to Dr. Happe and other park officials, stating that '[f]or the past two weeks or so reports of the big billy that sounds pretty surely to be the one that has menaced the Switchback trial has been menacing the Hurricane Hill trial,'" court documents continue. "She states that 'it seems his MO is to follow people to the trial head, rear up and come in close proximity brandishing his hooves, and the latest was an actual report of a head butt.' It is her impression that he is 'big, he's not wary, he pesters, he looks mean and as if he'll get aggressive.'"
Court documents indicate that in light of these concerns, park and wildlife officials discussed the possibility of relocating the goat that gored Boardman, though that obviously never happened.
Despite these facts (and, at least in part, because of some of them), this week in federal court in Tacoma U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan dismissed all but one of Chadd's claims - the claim the park screwed up the rescue effort - noting that although park officials could have been faster to kill or relocate the monstrous and aggressive mountain goat, the park's actions are immune from lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act - because these actions involved an exercise of discretion related to public policy.
In announcing his decision, Judge Bryan noted:
"Even in sad cases like this one, the court is duty bound to uphold the law, however difficult or unjust the result appears."
Find Judge Bryan's full decision on the following page:
Source:
All But One Claim Dismissed in Suit Filed Over Bob Boardman's Mountain Goat Goring Death - Seattle - News - The Daily Weekly
Categories: Law & Courts
| Bob Boardman |
Experienced hiker and registered nurse Bob Boardman was gored to death by a 370-pound mountain goat in Olympic National Park in October, 2010.
Boardman's wife, Susan Chadd, accompanied him on the fateful outing, and in the aftermath of her husband's untimely demise filed a lawsuit against the federal government claiming the "National Park Service failed to act on numerous complaints regarding this particular animal, failed to follow its own policies and procedures regarding hazardous animals, failed to relocate or euthanize the goat, and failed to properly respond once the attack had been reported," according to documents filed in the case. Seattle Weekly's Keegan Hamilton described Boardman's death in a Daily Weekly post from August, 2011:
On the afternoon of October 16, 63-year-old Bob Boardman was hiking a trail of switchbacks with his wife Susan Chadd and their friend Pat Willis at Klahhane Ridge, roughly 20 miles south of Port Angeles in Olympic National Park. When the trio paused for lunch, they were joined by an unexpected guest: a surly 370-pound, 8-year-old mountain goat. The goat stalked the hikers, pawed the ground, and bleated menacingly. Boardman, an experienced Olympic National Park outdoorsman and no stranger to confrontations with angry mountain goats, ordered his companions to forge ahead while the animal followed next to him for nearly a mile. Then tragedy struck. The goat lowered his horns and gored Boardman in the thigh, severing his femoral artery. He bled to death within minutes. Boardman, according to Olympic National Park rangers, was the first animal-caused fatality in the park's 73-year history. And yet, because he lodged several complaints about aggressive goat behavior prior to the deadly encounter, Boardman's estate is now filing more than $10 million worth of wrongful-death and personal-injury claims against the park.As noted, Boardman was an experienced hiker. He'd also reportedly warned officials of potentially dangerous goats in Olympic National Park in the past. As court documents filed in the case highlight, it wasn't the only warnings they received.
"Around 2004, Olympic's Wildlife Branch Chief and biologist Dr. Patti Happe, and other park officials, became aware of increasing reports of habituated behavior of mountain goats in the Hurricane Ridge area of the park," court documents state. "By 2006, the park began receiving reports of aggressive behavior by the mountain goats, including 'standing their ground, following or chasing humans, pawing the ground, and rearing up.'"
"[A]fter the park received further reports of increased habituation and possibly aggressive behavior from mountain goats, park rangers and field personnel hiked into the areas with high reported goat-human interactions to observe and monitor the goats. They found that the goats were 'demonstrating progressively habituated and sometimes aggressive behavior,'" court documents continue. "In response to their observations and other reports from visitors, the park service began providing visitors written and verbal warnings about the goats' aggressive behavior. Warning signs were also posted at trailheads. Efforts on warning visitors were focused on the Klahanne Ridge (where the attack eventually occurred) and nearby Hurricane Ridge."
In particular, the goat that killed Boardman had raised the concern of park and wildlife officials.
"In June of 2009, the Wildlife Branch Chief Dr. Patti Happe, sent an email to Olympic's Superintendent, Karen Gustin, the ranger assigned to the Hurricane and Klahanne Ridge areas, Sanny Lustig, and others," court documents state. "Dr. Happe wrote to give an 'update on the aggressive billy goat situation at Hurricane Ridge, and start the conversation about additional management options.' She noted that he has 'been a problem for several years,' that he is 'behaving in an increasing aggressive manner,' and she thinks he 'now perceives himself as being the dominant critter.' Dr. Happe expressed concern that 'it may only be an [sic] matter of time until someone is hurt.'"
"The following year, on July 5, 2010, Ranger Lustig sent another email to Dr. Happe and other park officials, stating that '[f]or the past two weeks or so reports of the big billy that sounds pretty surely to be the one that has menaced the Switchback trial has been menacing the Hurricane Hill trial,'" court documents continue. "She states that 'it seems his MO is to follow people to the trial head, rear up and come in close proximity brandishing his hooves, and the latest was an actual report of a head butt.' It is her impression that he is 'big, he's not wary, he pesters, he looks mean and as if he'll get aggressive.'"
Court documents indicate that in light of these concerns, park and wildlife officials discussed the possibility of relocating the goat that gored Boardman, though that obviously never happened.
Despite these facts (and, at least in part, because of some of them), this week in federal court in Tacoma U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan dismissed all but one of Chadd's claims - the claim the park screwed up the rescue effort - noting that although park officials could have been faster to kill or relocate the monstrous and aggressive mountain goat, the park's actions are immune from lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act - because these actions involved an exercise of discretion related to public policy.
In announcing his decision, Judge Bryan noted:
"Even in sad cases like this one, the court is duty bound to uphold the law, however difficult or unjust the result appears."
Find Judge Bryan's full decision on the following page:
Source:
All But One Claim Dismissed in Suit Filed Over Bob Boardman's Mountain Goat Goring Death - Seattle - News - The Daily Weekly
Visit the Zoo
A child enjoys a visit to the Beersheba zoo (photo credit: CC-BY Eddau/Wikipedia)
Source:
Visitors to Beersheba zoo upset at gender segregation | The Times of Israel
Animal Rights
- The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may
acquire those rights which never could have been witholden from them but
by the hand of tyranny. [...] A full-grown horse or dog, is beyond
comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than
an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old. But suppose the case
were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
- Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1823), Ch. 17: Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence
- Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man
in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge
and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion.
We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of
having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the
animal shall not be measured by man. They move finished and complete,
gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained,
living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are
not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net
of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the
earth.
- Henry Beston, The Outermost House (1928)
- I believe that animals have rights which, although different from
our own, are just as inalienable. I believe animals have the right not
to have pain, fear or physical deprivation inflicted upon them by us. . .
. They have the right not to be brutalized in any way as food
resources, for entertainment or any other purpose.”
- Naturalist Roger Caras, ABC-TV News, U.S.A. (Newsweek, December 26, 1988). Quoted in Awake! magazine, published by Jehovah's Witnesses, July 8 1990.
- It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living by its purely
physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially
influence the lot of mankind.
- Albert Einstein (Letter to Vegetarian Watch-Tower, 27 December 1930)
- You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughter-house is
concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity,
expensive races, — race living at the expense of race.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson in "Fate"
- The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
- Widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, but not found in his works.
- We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated
our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if
they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in
human form.
- William Ralph Inge, "The Idea of Progress" (Romanes Lecture, 27 May 1920), reprinted in Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922)
- Animals do not survive by rational thought (nor by sign languages
allegedly taught to them by psychologists). They survive through inborn
reflexes and sensory-perceptual association. They cannot reason. They
cannot learn a code of ethics. A lion is not immoral for eating a zebra
(or even for attacking a man). Predation is their natural and only means
of survival; they do not have the capacity to learn any other.
- Edwin A. Locke, author of The Prime Movers: Traits of the Great Wealth Creators (2000)
- The custom of tormenting and killing of beasts will, by degrees, harden their minds even towards men.
- John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
- What right do we have to claim, as some might, that human beings are
the only inhabitants of our planet blessed with an actual ability to be
"aware"? [...] The impression of a "conscious presence" is indeed very
strong with me when I look at a dog or a cat or, especially, when an ape
or monkey at the zoo looks at me. I do not ask that they are
"self-aware" in any strong sense (though I would guess that an element
of self-awareness can be present). All I ask is that they sometimes
simply feel!
- Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind (1989), Ch. 9
- In consequence of the sensibility with which they are endowed, they
ought to partake of natural right; so that mankind is subjected to a
kind of obligation even toward the brutes. It appears, in fact, that if I
am bound to do no injury to my fellow-creatures, this is less because
they are rational than because they are sentient beings: and this
quality, being common both to men and beasts, ought to entitle the
latter at least to the privilege of not being wantonly ill-treated by
the former.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (1754), preface
- As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish,
he always had the same thought: in their behaviour toward creatures, all
men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species
as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the
principle that might is right.
- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Enemies, a Love Story (1972), Ch. 9, §3
- The animals themselves are incapable of demanding their own
liberation, or of protesting against their condition with votes,
demonstrations, or bombs. Human beings have the power to continue to
oppress other species forever, or until we make this planet unsuitable
for living beings. Will our tyranny continue, proving that we really are
the selfish tyrants that the most cynical of poets and philosophers
have always said we are? Or will we rise to the challenge and prove our
capacity for genuine altruism by ending our ruthless exploitation of the
species in our power, not because we are forced to do so by rebels or
terrorists, but because we recognize that our position is morally
indefensible? The way in which we answer this question depends on the
way in which each one of us, individually, answers it.
- Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (1975), p. 185
- A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food;
therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely
for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.
- Leo Tolstoy, Writings on Civil Disobedience and Nonviolence (1886)
- Hold then the same view of the dog which has lost his master, which
has sought him in all the thoroughfares with cries of sorrow, which
comes into the house troubled and restless, goes downstairs, goes
upstairs; goes from room to room, finds at last in his study the master
he loves, and betokens his gladness by soft whimpers, frisks, and
caresses.
There are barbarians who seize this dog, who so greatly surpasses man
in fidelity and friendship, and nail him down to a table and dissect
him alive, to show you the Mesaraic veins! You discover in him all the
same organs of feeling as in yourself. Answer me, Mechanist, has Nature
arranged all the springs of feeling in this animal to the end that he
might not feel? Has he nerves that he may be incapable of suffering? Do
not suppose that impertinent contradiction in Nature.
- Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764), "Beasts"
Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Animal_rights
Monday, January 14, 2013
Pictures
Wayside Gossips, oil on canvas by George Morland, 1763-1804, from a British family of artists. Morland painted animals and rustic scenes and was often in financial trouble through living beyond his means.
This painting is in a private collection.
Highland Music, painted in 1829 and exhibited in 1830, oil on mahogany by Sir Henry Landseer, British, 1802-1873. The piper has a varied audience. Some enjoy the evening enough to join in.
Landseer painted this oil at his Highland retreat in Glen Freshie near Braemar, Scotland. It was presented to Tate Britain in 1847 by Robert Vernon.
Gnome Watching Railway Train oil on canvas by Carl Spitzweg, 1808-1885, German Romanticist painter and poet.
Spitzweg’s early paintings were of serious subjects but, as he grew older, his work took on a whimsical quality. If there is anyone more delightful, athousandwinds has no idea who it is.
Starfishpaws suggested The Poor Poet needed a cat as indeed he does, but Spitzweg cats are hard to find. We give him a gnome instead.
From Mathias Holtzwart's Emblematum Tyrocinia (1581):
Nature itself by example shows us, there is
Nothing better than to hide in one's own house.
We see how the tortoise creeps on the earth and
Maintains and upholds its own house on its back.
It never leaves this house, while it feeds on heaven's air,
And it carries the sweet burden on top of its body.
Thus is that man happy, who knows how to use sparingly what he has acquired,
And who cares nothing for others, so that he may live for himself.
Natura exemplo nobis ipsa indicat, esse
Nil melius, propria quam latitare domo.
Cernimus ut terris serpat testudo, suamque
Conseruet tergo sustineatque domum.
Deserit hanc nunquam, coeli dum uescitur aura,
Dulceque subiecto corpore gestat onus,
Sic felix, partis qui nouit parcere rebus,
Nilque alios curat, uiuat ut ipse sibi.
Source:
A Thousand Winds
http://athousandwinds.tumblr.com/page/16
Eastman Johnson, Old Man Seated
k
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Two boys in cart pulled by a goat.
A shoemaker at work. Poland, 1920s.
A water carrier. Lublin, 1937.
Source:
Vladimir Cherchev. Long Island, 1919.
YIVO Institute | From the YIVO Archiveshttp://yivo.wordpress.com/tag/yivo-institute/
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