30 brush-eating goats die in Mission Canyon
Thirty brush-eating goats that had worked overtime in the upper reaches of Mission Canyon since the middle of March perished in the Jesusita Fire.
The goats were part of a herd of 175, the majority of which were trucked out of the canyon last Tuesday, shortly after the blaze erupted.
By Tuesday night, Lorraine Argo, owner of Brush Goats 4 Hire, who has rented the goats to the Mission Canyon Association on a number of occasions, said 35 goats remained in the canyon.
When the blaze appeared to be subsiding Wednesday morning, she said the decision was made to place electric fencing around the remaining goats and leave them in place.
But by early afternoon, shortly after setting up the fence, the winds picked up and within minutes flaming embers were blowing into the area.
Rather than attempt to drive out of the canyon, pick up a trailer and return, Argo said she and her employees decided to load as many of the animals as they could into the one SUV and leave.
“The flames actually came within 3 feet of the pen while we were loading up,” she said. “You literally had minutes, you didn’t have hours to make a decision.”
Argo compared the goats to deer, saying they resist being captured. Even so, she said five goats were rounded up, the maximum amount that would fit in the car.
“You just had to grab the ones that were closest to you,” Argo said.
The 30 remaining goats were left to fend for themselves. Argo said the carcasses of some of the animals have been found, but many have not.
She hopes someone will soon find them alive in their backyard, but so far, she hasn’t received any calls.
While the story of the goats is tragic, that they were there in the first place is an example how many residents in the Mission Canyon area have taken an aggressive role in diminishing the fire risks in the fuel-rich canyon.
In the last few years the Mission Canyon Association, which was founded in large part to ensure adequate fire protection for the area, has secured three state fire safety grants totaling $213,000.
The association has spent upwards of $30,000 on goats, with 50 percent of the funding going toward manual brush clearing.
Argo said goats, with their small hooves, are able to clear brush on steep slopes that humans struggle with.
According to association president Tim Steele, whose house on Holly Road was destroyed, the most recent fire safety goal was to create a U-shaped buffer at the upper end of the canyon. This effort, executed by goats and humans, was well underway when the fire broke out.
By Steele’s count, 27 homes in Mission Canyon were destroyed. Still, he said the fire prevention efforts, such as encouraging residents to create defensible space around their homes and employing the goats, made a difference and saved many homes.
“I am quite confident it saved many homes in the canyon,” he said, adding that just before the fire, the association completed a brush reduction and burn program that accomplished many of its goals. “The upper part of the canyon is very singed, but the houses are there. That speaks for creating a safe haven for the fire department. The fire department can only protect these houses as long as they’re not going to kill themselves in the process of doing so.”
While many homes in the area were burned, the one belonging to Ray Smith, an association board member, was mostly spared.
Smith, like many Mission Canyon residents, has actively worked to spur the risk of fire danger in the canyon for years. Much of this effort has been aimed at clearing brush around his home, ensuring that when the time came, firefighters would have enough room to work.
Before Smith drove away from his home Tuesday evening, he hooked a 2-inch hose to the water main and left it lying on the ground.
Sometime on Wednesday afternoon, when the fire blew out of control and charged into Mission Canyon, the flames were at Smith’s front door: in fact, they were burning his garage.
At some point, firefighters arrived and used the hose Smith left behind to extinguish the flames.
During the firefight the heat from the flames grew so intense the firefighters were forced to take refuge in the home, but the front door was locked.
Smith said he returned home to find his garage burned. The only damage to the main house was a broken window.
“I talked to the firefighter who actually stood here,” Smith said. He “had to break a window and jump inside to save himself. These guys go above and beyond.
“He was from the Los Angeles Fire Department, Engine 37. I got to shake his hand and I wanted to cry.”
Comment on this article
What would Wendy Do? : 5/12/2009
The goats died doing their duty, and Daily Sound scooped its competitor that obsesses over animal rights stories.
Chivo Barbecue
goat law : 5/12/2009
There's a reason in the countryside sheep have special-color stains on their hind. Its so the sheep can be indentified from neighbor to neighbor. Good luck on that. Remember, goat storage is $14 a day from the day the thing arrived.
OWNER ABUSE?
: 5/12/2009
Wednesday morning the fire was not even close to contained. Too bad the decision wasn't made to evacuate the goats. That would have cost money and time.
So Sad for the Goats : 5/12/2009
It was such a relief that no person lost their life. It also appeared, that no pets lost their lives. It was all good news. So, it's sad to hear about the loss of lives of the goats. I never want to hear about loss of life.
very : 5/12/2009
Nice story --- and very sad about the goats. I wasn't there to make that judgment about leaving 35 lives behind, but it was good they returned for at least five of them. How would they have been able to leave for safety, penned in by an electric fence? Very nicely written story, as always!, by Colby Frazier but just one minor quibble. Please be careful in using the word "tragic" --- it really doesn't apply here: it's a very sad story, but not "tragic" which should have the implication that the sad ending was caused at least in part by the participants, the goats. (Sidenote: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy for a surprising connection to goats!)
CRB
Fondu anyone? : 5/12/2009
I heard goat cheese fondu is particularly good when roasted over an open flame!
Goat Jerl
Shame on Lorraine : 5/12/2009
How horrible that Lorraine would place electric fencing around 35 goats and leave them in place during a forest fire. When thousands of people were evacuating, how could she possibly stand by her statement that: "When the blaze appeared to be subsiding Wednesday morning, the decision was made to place electric fencing around the remaining goats and leave them in place." The blaze had never subsided until recently. Shame on Lorraine for issuing a death sentence to innocent goats.
goat tragedy : 5/12/2009
Can Lorraine Argo be found guilty of animal endangerment? It was well-known the dangerous Sundowner conditions would be in play that evening. Shame on the people who refer to the goats as "things" or that they would be tasty barbequed. This fire has surfaced to be a fiasco that was in part due to contract inadequacies and all-round human error by overseers. An embarassment to be certain.
goat tragedy
The Danger Was Known to Goat Owner : 5/12/2009
If she had to evacuate SOME goats, she must have thought there was a risk, thus, leaving the other goats inside an electric fence, and not evacuating all of them, means she knew death was a likely scenario. She didn't want to spend the money or the time. Bet her insurance will cover the cost of replacing the goats. They must have been just a commodity in her eyes. Burning alive must be a horrible way to go.
Animal Cruelty/Negligence
Unfortunate goat deaths : 5/12/2009
Just a commodity? Unjustified and unfair comment... I've met Lorraine and spoken with her before all this happened, and her goats were far from being "just a commodity". She cared for them and about them, and must be really saddened by this. Just as we were evacuating from the canyon, someone who worked with the goats stopped by our house to let us know he had gotten as many as he could in the little time he had. The goats were within a large area and not that easy to get. I'm not sure whoever is talking of animl cruelty would have been able to do any better.
Yuppie Farmers : 5/12/2009
LOL at all the "goat experts" crying about "sentencing innocent goats to death." How many of you have even seen a goat up close? The goats were fenced in place so that the owners would be able to find them when they returned. It's not like you can tell the goat "stay here -- I'll be back in an hour."
Goat deaths : 5/12/2009
I will respond to the crack about being the person citing animal cruelty- I would not have kept the goats up there while the fire was going on. Inhumane applies to more than human beings. I was probably the 2nd person to phone in seeing the plume of smoke, having been a fire fighter years back. I called the fire station again about 10 minutes later, not hearing any sirens or seeing a visible response. I have questioned why a contract wasn't prepared for emergency. I am not sitting idly while questions remain unanswered.
Animal cruelty citation
This town is clueless : 5/13/2009
Hope you do follow up - this town is clueless. People here can't wait to celebrate after each fire is over but then do nothing to change anything, not the strategies employed to fight the fires, not the use of aircraft (except to move them even further away), etc etc. Everyone is now busy congratulating themselves on having evacuated successfully or the survival of their houses while the number of those whose homes have been destroyed continues to grow whether from this fire, the Tea Fire or Painted Cave Fire. The mayor and city council are worse than clueless, showing no leadership and doing NOTHING other than joining in the self-congratulations - any why not, much of the public doesn't want to hear anything "bad" and refuses to listen to anyone saying "unpleasant" things or suggesting there is a need to change anything about the way these fires are fought. One day, perhaps soon, a fire is going to sweep through this town and destroy much or all of it a la London or Chicago.
Fed up
I agree . . . : 5/13/2009
. . . with fed up. The goats were a proactive (albeit futile) effort to create defensible space around homes in imminent fire danger. Other than that, there is absolutely no contingency plan in effect to prevent fires from occurring or to lessen their rampage. The fixed wing aircraft are kept in Paso Robles, of all places, because the landing and storage fees at the Santa Barbara Airport (owned by the City) were too high. We can only activate the DC-10 if "certain conditions" are met. We sit around and watch as the western front of the fire continues to march west, simply because there is currently nothing in its path and the winds are blowing east (for the moment). These are unnacceptable issues that need to be addressed.
sbdude
Baaaaad Neeewws : 5/13/2009
And, wow, what a flurry of divergent comments . . .
:(
: 5/14/2009
And wow, isn't free speech a wonderful thing. Thank goodness we can speak openly.
: 5/14/2009
I agree, all this self-congratulatory crap is just crap. What Santa Barbara citizens just went through is no success. Evaluation and policy changes, please.
goats : 5/15/2009
that sucks for the goats, poor little fellas
buthead
Saving the goats : 5/17/2009
We live about a quarter mile away from where the goats were grazing, and were amazed to hear the goats being called on Wednesday even as the blaze was getting ever closer. I am confident that Lorraine and her husband were doing all that they safely could to collect the goats and bring them to safety under very difficult conditions. Remember that people had to evacuate down the very narrow and winding Holly Rd.
BSL
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