KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Around half a dozen mystery goats continue to roam along the Missouri River by the Riverfront Heritage Trail.
It's a mystery who owns them and it's a mystery where they've come from, but KC Pet Project hasn't given up yet.
Ryan Johnson, chief of animal services at KC Pet Project, said calls of loose goats roaming around the riverfront started weeks ago.
“The initial assumption was we were aware of a project with Port KC," he said.
RELATED | Goats to graze Kansas City's Berkley Riverfront to reduce invasive vegetation
That project used goats to help trim down foliage in the area, but these aren't those goats.
“We learned that the goats actually were not a part of that project, that all of the goats from Port KC were accounted for," he said. "And so that kind of prompted the mystery. Well, where did these goats come from?"
Nearly all of them — save for one smaller, younger goat — have ear tags with numbers.
But Johnson said the tags have been a dead-end.
“Our return-to-home team has done a lot of research on those," he said.
It's likely they're used by an individual owner to identify livestock — not for tracking and not part of a goat identification database as you'd expect in a cat or dog's identification chip.
Still, no owner has come forth.
“It truly is a mystery," Johnson said. "We’re not sure where these goats came from, why they’re loose. We haven’t been able to make connection to an owner or anybody that’s reported ownership of missing them."
RELATED | Goat turned viral sensation reunited with family days after being found on south KCMO bridge
While the goats aren't harming anyone, the concern is they might harm themselves.
They've been spotted on railroad tracks and walking along narrow, seemingly dangerous paths near the rushing river water.
KC Pet Project has successfully captured three, but capturing a goat in a wide-open space isn't easy.
“Very different than dogs and cats ... Goats, when they have this freedom to run loose, it’s a lot different," Johnson said. “This poses more of a challenge for us and the officers in that the goats will run from you and they have a lot of freedom to do so.”
The end of their mysterious freedom may soon come to an end. Johnson said KC Pet Project is planning an upcoming roundup of the goats.
—
KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers issues connected to access to housing and rent costs. Share your story idea with Grant.
