Petition to ban goat hunting.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364201#Comment_119364201

Gorse fires are very common in the countryside and where there's a lot of gorse. Crone Woods in Wicklow was on fire yesterday, a huge fire.

Historically Howth's heather and gorse was managed by livestock. That's changed now but the introduction of goats will hopefully manage the gorse and heather.

I didn't say they put out fires, but they graze fire breaks.

J.R.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364201#Comment_119364201

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/dublin/herd-of-wild-goats-to-be-deployed-to-help-prevent-spread-of-gorse-fires-in-howth-40653451.html

...

Grizzly 45

25 goats? They would want 10 to 12 times that amount to start making a dent in the gorse and growth on Howth. It can take years for them[goats] to start landscaping a tract that big... That's if they don't fancy some change in diet and lunch down on someone's fine manicured garden in Howth,as goats are escape &evasion experts as anyone will tell you who has ever owned or had anything to do with them, the good people of Howth will want to make sure their fences are very stock proof to keep goats out.😆

John_Rambo

There are 42 goats in the breeding heard with 15 more males being introduced soon, not sure if you're aware of the eating powers of goats, you'll be amazed at how much 50 goats can get through in a few weeks.

So far, no fires that I know of & haven't heard of any problems with locals.

Grizzly 45

WELL aware of what they can eat and escape to and from, as we had a few of them on the farm when I grew up, where they preferred my mother's flowers and the vegetable patch to any briars and ivy they were employed to eat🤣. A 10-foot stone estate wall with a 6inch lip was nothing to these lads,they would walk along it no bother into a neighbour's farm,as we would walk along a pavement.

With 1500 acres of the Special Amenity Area,which I presume they will be based out of...? They are going to be the most obese goats in Ireland.😂

J.R.

They use a virtual fence to control where the goats roam...each goat has a GPS collar.

https://youtu.be/XROZJjaK2tU

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119368155#Comment_119368155

Well, it seems to be working out well. Was on the hill this morning and the goats are munching away, still no fires.

Grizzly 45

They use a virtual fence to control where the goats roam...each goat has a GPS collar.

I'm very curious as to how this will work, because either there has been a misunderstanding on what a GPS fence actually is? Or do they have some sort of deterrence device in the GPS collar to "persuade" the goats not to go past a certain point?IE a shock collar🤔which fIK is not something you can use on domestic stock under animal cruelty law?

Well, it seems to be working out well. Was on the hill this morning and the goats are munching away, still no fires.

Well , unless we get another 2/3 weeks of heat like on Monday and everything becomes paper dry, and by natural causes, and/or your resident firebug doesn't decide to visit and set the place ablaze, you won't have fires. But fatter goats.😁

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119369997#Comment_119369997

Last year we'd a big fire on the hill that took buckets and buckets of helicopter water to douse during a much shorter dry spell with much less intense heat. So, as much as you don't like the project, who it involves, where it is and what you think of the "good people of Howth" it seems to be working.

That's a good thing.

JP22

Maybe its something like this.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethrushe/2018/10/29/europes-first-virtual-goat-fence-is-on-the-market/?sh=5b8d688b5d97

kunekunesika

The goats are happy, the risk of fires and their severity is reduced. The goat minders and Sunday strollers are happy. Only losers are the helicopter companies, which I feel were never really set up to deal with fires. All we need now is howth goat cheese with kid and chips for the fancy restaurants on the pier.... Circular economy all the way

Grizzly 45

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119370447#Comment_119370447

I quite frankly dont give a toss about Howth,and the goats up there or whether you have 5,50 or 50,000 of them in that your utterly overpriced real estate ,or whether it is eaten by goats or burns to the ground every year .

If you want to get rid of gorse properly it involves four things,none of which people like doing.(1)Roundup weed killer (2)physical work (3)spending money(4)being enviromentally unfriendly,but actually being enviromentally friendly in the long run by doing controlled burning.

If you want 100,000old irish goats running about ,you are welcome to them.Leave the rest of us to get on with controlling the hybrids and ferals in the rest of the country.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371581#Comment_119371581

Lol! for someone that doesn't give a toss about Howth, the goats and how well it's working you're doing a lot of posting about the situation.

I'll leave you to your chemicals, burning & machinery, we'll continue doing it right. The old way 😉

*edit.. fair comment, I forgot, there was machinery used to create fire breaks on the hill, the goats will maintain them.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371245#Comment_119371245

Excellent idea!! Goats cheese.

It wasn't a helicopter company, it was the army... so it's actually a saving for the tax payer.

Grizzly 45

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119372522#Comment_119372522

Seeing that I started the thread...I might be allowed to comment on it???

ROTFLMAO. There was/is a reason people who live in the country and have to make a living off their land use "the old way" as you describe it and cant wait/or play at rich people or Eco fascist's follies in their little enclave. We shall wait and see how this plays out in the next few months and years.

Grizzly 45

Excellent idea!! Goats cheese.

Townies for yer!🤣🙄

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119374950#Comment_119374950

Sneer & scoff away Grizzly, but Irish produced goats cheese like St. Tola in Clare and Ardsallagh in Cork are two of the finest in the country. Since the 1970’s revival of farmhouse cheesemaking Ireland has become a noted producer. There's no reason why our goats in co. Dublin can't produce cheese, we have some of the largest and most successful farms here.

Reminds me of Geoff Read being laughed out of it and being branded a "townie" when he came up with Ballygowan bottled water.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364615#Comment_119364615

To be clear, I was being facetious. Didn’t actually think goats were putting out fire.

but didn’t think they were as big an issue in such a small geographical area. good to know.

Grizzly 45

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119375512#Comment_119375512

This is pure comedy gold!!!!🤣🤣

You have kind of forgotten how your goat's cheese will arrive in your boutique Fromagiere. You have to get it out of the goat first, once or twice a day,7 days a week for about 5 months...Are you going to go off up Howth hill to milk the Nannies twice a day and bring the milk back? What are you going to feed the kids with that you want to grow up for fire fighting duty if you are taking the nanny's milk? That's if they [the organisation running this and the goats themselves] even let you near this future wild herd...Clue "Wild" IOW they won't be like tame domestic goats who are used to being handled and milked, or the project will want this extra work of managing the herd.

Do you have someone with a cheese making set up in Howth, all certified to food standards and just waiting for milk from this exclusive herd, and of course, a daily regular supply can be guaranteed to supply the market? Fair dues if you do, but if they are that established they already have a supplier and won't need the milk from the herd.Which BTW would have to be managed then as a domestic herd of cattle and be subject to the same routine of vaccinations and dosage as laid down by the Dept of Agriculture. You can have either a feral herd of goats doing firefighting duties,or you can have a domestic herd providing milk. Not both in this case.

Water is a bit easier to get than goats milk TBH,and as PT Barnum said about the birth rate of suckers who want to pay for bottled water, in this case....

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119376432#Comment_119376432

Thanks so much for the insight. Your interest in the herd has been very educational.