Navy Kills 461 Goats on San Clemente Island

Helicopter-borne Navy marksmen have killed 461 wild goats on San Clemente Island, a Navy spokesman said in San Diego on Friday.

The shotgun slayings are the latest move in a years-long effort to eradicate the creatures that, biologists have said, threaten the existence of several endangered species of animal and plant life on the island, about 60 miles west of San Diego.

No Effort to Recover Carcasses

Navy spokesman Ken Mitchell said the shootings took place during the first three days of July.

He said there was no effort made to recover the carcasses because of the steep, cliff-scarred terrain on the island, which is often used for Naval gunnery practice.

“We feel that the goat population on the island is at its lowest level ever now, and we plan to make a survey soon to determine how many might be left,” Mitchell said.

Cleveland Amory, author and president of the Fund for Animals, a group which managed to have about 3,400 of the goats removed during the last three years, reacted bitterly to news of the shootings.

“We were not informed as to how, when and if the shooting was going to take place until it was all over,” Amory said in a telephone interview Friday.

“The Navy is very good at shooting, but they’re no good at rescuing. If they had shown a little patience and a desire not to shoot, our rescue efforts could have kept the (goat) population under control without harming them.

“Nobody has been able to tell me how many of those that were shot died in agony or crawled off and still are suffering,” Amory said. “There’s nothing we can do now, but I can only guess that in a few years, when the goats that survived have reproduced some more, the Navy might come back and ask for our help again.

Never Get Them All

“I can tell you one thing with certainty, they’ll never get all those animals. There’ll be goats on the island for the rest of all our lives.” The Navy had planned early in 1985 to institute a shooting program, hiring an environmental consultant, Steve Carothers, of Flagstaff, Ariz., to carry it out. However, the program was put off by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, who intervened on behalf of the Fund for Animals, which then arranged for a rescue technique involving nets dropped from helicopters to take the animals alive.

Hundreds of Animals Adopted

The captives were brought to a shelter at Ramona in San Diego County, where, Amory said, they were offered up for adoption to private individuals. He said Friday “many hundreds” have been adopted.

Mitchell cited high costs of the goat rescue effort. A spokesman told the Associated Press that the Navy has spent “well over a half-million dollars” trying to get rid of the animals and has also covered air fare, meals and lodging for Fund for Animals volunteers who participated in trapping efforts.

Attempts to clear the goats from the island began several years ago when biologists decided that they were chewing up plants and threatening the habitats of certain birds and lizards that appear on the federal Endangered Species list.