How does an adult goat get two fire trucks and a digger to come to its aid?
The answer is simple: it crawls into a large stormwater drainpipe, gets stuck and then bleats incessantly.
This happened on Sunday night in Blue Downs when a goat was rescued after being stuck in a tight spot for at least five hours.
Children heard the bleating coming from the pipe, alerted their parents and the authorities were called.
At 9pm it was rescued and taken away by the SPCA’s Distressed Animal Rescue response unit.
SPCA Inspector Gareth Petterson said this was the first report they had had of a farm animal being stuck in a stormwater drain.
“We normally rescue cats and dogs. This wasn’t a small goat either, it was an adult goat.”
Petterson said the goat crawled about four metres into the pipe that runs below Carol Anne Road.
“It was almost directly under the road and we had to use heavy digging equipment to dig through the road.”
He said the five hour operation ended with him and a team from the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue department breaking through the pipe before safely getting the goat out.
Petterson said although they did not know the sex of the goat at the time, one of the firemen named it Carol Anne after the street.
The goat is believed to have strayed from a herd that grazes on an open field next to the road.
Lamees Martin, spokeswoman for the SPCA said the goat was taken to the Grassy Park SPCA where it will be examined by a vet.
Martin confirmed today that Carol Anne is male.
She said the goat would stay with the SPCA for the next few days. The SPCA will wait for its owner to come forward, failing which Carol Anne will be put up for adoption if it passes the medical examination.
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