All of Kansas City can finally sleep easier tonight knowing the ten mystery goats who'd set up camp on the KC riverfront have been captured.
They did not go quietly.
For whatever reason, the goats had chosen two large concrete pads along the the Riverfront Heritage Trail as their base of operations.
They've been spotted there, and in nearby areas, for several weeks.
Their appearance is still a mystery. No one knows where they came from, or how they got there.
Each time officers were sent to capture the goats in the past, they used their nimble hoof-work to their advantage, clambering away on steep rocky inclines along the river. They're also faster than you'd think, darting into thick bushes where humans couldn't follow.
Sure, passersby loved to see them. They were seemingly fine with large grazing areas and access to water, but the goats were perhaps a little too bold for their own good.
They'd been spotted multiple times along the close-by railroad tracks and were known to get daringly close to the rushing Missouri River.
To save them from themselves, an extraction plan was hatched.
Wednesday morning the large crew of officers and volunteers took trucks and barriers and created a makeshift goat corral.
“The terrain and this environment made this capture exceedingly difficult. There’s a steep bank going down the river just behind me. It’s full of bushes, sharp rocks, unstable terrain. So I really give credit to the officers today for their hard work,” Ryan Johnson, KC Pet Project said.
They put the barriers along the steep slopes down to the river so the goats would be directed toward the back of an open trailer.
“We had a line going down the shore, slowly creeping along to present another kind of visual moving barrier. And that’s what finally flushed the goats up over the lip and then into the trailer," said Margaret Chamas, a volunteer goat expert who played a crucial role in helping KC crews herd the herd.
The whole operation took just shy of two hours - the goats were not cooperative.
A few would be guided into the trailer, a few would dart back into the brush and away from Chamas, who took charge in guiding the goats.
Finally, it got down to the largest troublemakers of all, two white goats with large horns that had been particularly evasive.
A final push, and the clanging of a trailer door behind the elusive two goats marked the end of their riverfront saga.
They were evaluated by personnel on-site, but they'll be looked at further at KC Pet Project's facility.
They'll stay there for a five-day hold period before they'll go up for adoption.
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