Homes for the Herd : Shelters Finding Foster Goatherds for San Clemente Island Refugees

Brushing aside naysayers, a spokesman for the Fund for Animals said the group will easily find new homes for the 385 goats it has airlifted from San Clemente Island and offered for adoption.

By Sunday night, animal shelters in Los Angeles and San Diego counties reported that 100 of the animals have been adopted since they were brought ashore Thursday. Shelter workers said the goats, which the Navy had planned to shoot, have become a hit with would-be owners who paid up to $70 to take home a pair of the frisky animals.

“Some people doubted there would be a rush to adopt these creatures, but the interest is certainly there,” said Cleveland Amory, a New York writer who established the Fund for Animals and has coordinated the goat rescue operation that began Feb. 1.

“People love these little goats when they see them. They’re pretty and soft-looking, actually they’re very gentle,” he added. “When you see them, some people just want to take a goat away right then and there.”

Amory said the organization hopes to capture at least 700 of the island’s 1,500 Andalusian goats by helicopter before the Navy’s March 4 deadline to start shooting. The group has reached the halfway point in 10 days, a feat “beyond our wildest expectations,” he added.

The issue arose last year when government officials ordered that the goats be eradicated, explaining that they were a threat to endangered plants and animals on the Navy-owned island 60 miles off north San Diego County. The shooting was scheduled to begin this month, but U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger delayed the shooting until March 4 under pressure from environmentalist groups.

With 22 days left in “Operation Goat,” as it has been called, volunteers with the Fund for Animals are confident that new owners will be found for all of the animals that are captured and then airlifted to the mainland.

Johnnie Duffy, a volunteer at the Ramona Animal Trust Sanctuary in northern San Diego County--one of several facilities where the goats are being sheltered--said Sunday that would-be owners from all over Southern California have come down to inspect the animals.

However, she stressed that people are carefully screened before they are allowed to purchase the goats (nannies cost $35 and billies run $25).

“People are coming from Orange County, Los Angeles . . . all over to adopt these animals, but we have to make sure that they have a place to keep the goat which is suitable. They (the animals) are climbers, and the enclosure has to be escape-free.

“Also, people have to provide a shelter so the goats are safe from wind and rain. We also want the name of their veterinarian, so the animals can be checked regularly.”

Duffy added that would-be owners must sign a contract with the Fund for Animals, agreeing that the group can take the animal back any time there is a complaint that the goat has been treated cruelly or neglected.

Finally, volunteers recommend that owners adopt two goats, so that the animals will not get lonely.

“Remember, these are herd animals,” Duffy said. “One goat gets very lonesome, especially in a new home. It just cries and cries. It’s pathetic to hear and neighbors might not like it. When you have two, at least they can snuggle together.”

Any snuggling, however, must be strictly platonic.

Duffy said that owners can only purchase goats of the same sex, because “breeding is prohibited, there’s no purpose for it. We’re just trying to give these animals a good home.”

Also, some prospective owners indicated that they intend to barbecue the newborn goats, Duffy said, a prospect that “would seem to defeat the whole purpose of this operation, after what we’ve gone through to save these animals.”