Survivors on Sale : Goat Rescue Backers Find Price Is Right

Loren and Alice Rucker paid $60 for a pair of wild goats Saturday, for reasons they have yet to comprehend.

“We just heard about them, so we bought some,” said Alice Rucker, who lives with her husband and daughter in a rural corner of Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley. “We thought we’d do our duty.”

The Ruckers were among about 50 people who came to the Los Angeles County Animal Care and Safety shelter in Castaic on the first day the refugee goats were up for adoption.

Targeted by Shooters

Recently separated from a larger herd on San Clemente Island, the goats had escaped plans by the U.S. Navy to shoot them because they were damaging animal and plant life.

Last week, the International Fund for Animals began rescuing the goats, trapping them with nets thrown from helicopters and shipping 200 to the mainland on a barge. Loaded into cattle trucks, the goats Thursday were driven to shelters in San Diego and Los Angeles counties and 97 arrived at Castaic.

On Saturday, as county officials and representatives of the animal protection group watched, the goats were offered for sale to the public as part of a carefully managed “adoption program.”

Inside the shelter, which normally houses impounded or abused animals from the Santa Clarita Valley, animal fund staffers manned a table throughout the day, interviewing customers and dispensing “adoption” contracts.

Signs of Interest

Paula Van Orden, a spokeswoman for the fund, said her organization had been “besieged” with calls since the rescue operation began, with purchase offers coming from as far away as Vermont and Mexico.

The goats, said Orden, were for sale under strict conditions. You had to buy at least two, unless you already owned a “companion animal.” Male and female sets had to be spayed and neutered to prevent the goats from breeding. Customers were required to meet flexible “minimum acreage and fencing requirements” to prevent the goats from bounding away. Veterinarians and medical records were to be made available on request. Every six months, the fund expected a health report.

Males cost $25, while females sold for $35.

The customers, like the goats, ranged widely in age and appearance. An aerospace engineer from Simi Valley bought two females, loading them into the back of a station wagon. An elementary school teacher from Canyon Country bought a female, which briefly escaped from the back of his covered Jeep.

While most buyers said they hoped the goats would eat unwanted plants in the yards, or provide companionship for other animals, a few were less precise.

“It’s not like we’re professional goat people or anything,” said Becky Fee of Simi Valley. “I’m here because they have sweet-looking faces.”