{"id":367,"date":"2016-07-25T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T06:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/?p=367"},"modified":"2020-03-04T15:59:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T22:59:50","slug":"goathangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/2016\/07\/25\/goathangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Goathangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

News item:<\/strong> Goat rescued after getting stuck on power lines<\/a><\/p>\n

The above article describes how a goat, which had somehow ended up hanging by its curly horns on a power line, was rescued. There is (or was) a Youtube video showing the rescue. This one<\/a>\u00a0 was working as at 2016-07-23.<\/p>\n

The following news report is a work of fiction based on the above.<\/p>\n

\n

[Anchor]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Goat farmers in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains have developed a novel and effective way to protect their livestock from predators at night. They are hanging them by the horns from a zip line. Our reporter, Penny Zmeyetyer, has the story.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here in rural Twyfordville, goat farmers have been struggling for years with a two-pronged problem: the decline in demand for goat products and the loss of livestock to coyotes. But Eric Gotthard has come up with something that addresses both the income and loss issues. He and two other local goat farmers have clubbed together to build a five hundred metre zip line above the grassy meadows and woodland on their common grazing land. During the day, tourists and fun seekers pay to ride the zip line, and at night, the goats are hung on the line out of the reach of all but the most wily of coyotes.<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The idea came to me when I saw a Youtube video of a goat hanging on a power line by its horns. Although it looked a little strange, it was obvious from the rescue that the goat had suffered no ill effects. We lose a goat or two every week to predators, so anything we can do to cut that down would be great for our bottom line.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What made you think of the zip line?<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The idea of hanging a hundred and fifty goats on a high voltage power line every night and taking them down again every morning didn\u2019t appeal to my desire to live a long life, so I set to thinking about what might be a good substitute. Then one night, I was watching a documentary on TV about zip lines over the jungle canopy in South America, and thought, \u2018I bet tourists would love to ride a zip line over our pastures.\u2019 There\u2019s lots of neat wildife in there.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And how popular has the zip line proved to be?<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s picking up. We get about a hundred people a day show up for a ride, and the feedback is good. We\u2019re still recouping the cost of the zip line, but it\u2019ll have paid for itself by this time next year.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have you lost any goats since you started hanging them up for the night?<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Only one, early on. He had allergies though, and sneezed himself off the zip line. Coyotes got him while he was still bouncing; saw the whole thing from my deck.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have there been any other benefits?<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You bet! With a hundred people a day coming through here, plus the people who come but don\u2019t ride the zip line, we\u2019re able to sell goat products directly rather than paying the middle men their cut. Milk, cheese, skins\u2026 even the hoofs are popular with folk who think they have aphrodisiac qualities.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sounds like a winning formula all round.<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And there\u2019s more. We\u2019ve now built a viewing platform east of the zip line, and charge people to take pictures at sunset of the hanging goats. Makes a great picture, I can tell ya!<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have you noticed any changes in the goats\u2019 demeanour?<\/p>\n

[Eric]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, they\u2019re obviously no longer worried about being pounced on at night, and relaxed goats make sweeter milk and more tender meat. They\u2019re a bit antsy in the mornings and do a fair bit of running and jumping for the first few minutes after we put them back on the ground.<\/p>\n

The other thing we\u2019re noticing is that their necks are getting a little longer and stronger. They\u2019re beginning to look a little more like alpacas, although having hair instead of wool means they don\u2019t look so cute.<\/p>\n

[Penny]<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Animal welfare inspectors have inspected and approved the operation, and Gotthard has patented the idea. The goats seem not to mind just hanging out all night, and the coyotes appear to have learned that there\u2019s no easy meals here anymore.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re passing by Twyfordville, the Goathanger Zip Line is a great place to stop for a bite to eat and a panoramic view of the meadows and the mountains beyond. And the sunset views of the hanging goats are indeed spectacular.<\/p>\n

Penny Zmeyetyer, News Now, Twyfordville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News item: Goat rescued after getting stuck on power lines The above article describes how a goat, which had somehow ended up hanging by its curly horns on a power line, was rescued. There is (or was) a Youtube video showing the rescue. This one\u00a0 was working as at 2016-07-23. The following news report is a work of fiction based… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,486],"tags":[135,136],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fake","category-scripts","tag-hanging-goats","tag-zip-line"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}