Goat-shooting angers hill farmer

Press, 5 April 1989, Page 8

Goat-shooting angers hill farmer

By

KAY FORRESTER

A Port Hills farmer is angry that Christchurch City Council staff shot 20 of his goats in Barnett Park, Redcliffs.

Mr John Rutherford said he was considering what action he should take against the council for shooting what he said were pure-bred angora goats. The council’s deputy general manager of parks, Mr Rob Dally, confirmed last evening that about 10 days ago the council shot “under 20” goats that had persistently strayed into the reserve from Mr Rutherford’s property. Mr Dally said the goats were wild and had caused problems for some months, eating native plants in the park and fouling the walkway.

The council had asked Mr Rutherford to keep the goats out of the reserve and had attempted to round them up with dogs. The shooting had been the last resort. Mr Rutherford acknowledged the problem of goats straying into the park. The boundary between his land and the reserve was in part steep cliffs that were virtually impossible to fence, he

said. There had been no fence between the land and the park for 70 years, he said. The less steep part of the boundary had been fenced but that fence was burnt about six years ago when P.E.P. workers employed by the council set fire to gorse in the reserve to clear it. Mr Rutherford said he had fenced a compound for the goats on his property with 2m high fencing, after council complaints about the goats in the park. He had let the goats out of that compound earlier this year when they had eaten all the food in it.

“There was gorse higher up on my property they could eat. Because of the gorse and broom in the reserve they went down the cliffs and grazed there,” he said. He believed the goats did a good job of keeping the noxious weeds in the reserve down. The growth of gorse and broom there was a fire hazard that was best controlled by goats.

He had put goats on his property on the recommendation of the Ministry of Agriculture as the best means of keeping the noxious weeds down. He said he had never seen any native plants in the reserve, other than mature trees that were still there. “The goats are very tame. People enjoy them being in the reserve. They take photographs of their children with them,” he said.

Mr Rutherford said he was appalled the council had moved in with guns without consulting him. He had not been told of the shooting, he said. He had been asked to remove the goats from the park but had told the council that was impossible because there was no fence. The goats had been shorn for their fibre and had been bred over a period of years to be virtually purebred. Among the 20 goats shot was a rare blue angora, Mr Rutherford said.