Giddy Goats

Goats are in the news again, for example, 6 are to be deployed by Barratts Homes at Boscombe in Dorset in a 6 month trial to see whether they can return cliff top shrub to more favoured (by the house buyers in the 170 home development) grassland habitat (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/08/1). Even if the goats fail to escape, this takes no account of the fact that the shrub is valuable habitat for a range of plant and animal species (who don't get a vote). The deviousness of goats is also clearly illustrated by the Reuters story (http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE50M4XT20090123) that a black and white goat was arrested by police in Kawara, Nigeria on suspicion of attempted armed robbery (including trying to steal a Mazda 323 car). Vigilantes, who pursued the thieves, claimed that one hoodlum used black magic to turn himself into the goat! This is almost as bizarre as the story that Hartlepool United's mascot, H'Angus, commemorates the hanging of a pet monkey that was washed ashore, following a storm in the Napoleonic wars, in the belief that it was a Frenchman (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1965569.stm)!