Beach visitors warned not to pet cliffside goats
Bournemouth Goats, a group responsible for managing the herd living next to the town's beaches, issued the warning on Facebook after two people were photographed petting the animals inside a fence.
The animals were introduced as a natural solution to control cliffside vegetation, replacing the need for petrol-powered mowers.
Herder Tanya Bishop said the fencing was there for a reason – to protect both the public and the goats.
"They are not pets, and approaching them is not safe," she said.
"The cliffs are dangerous. One wrong step could lead to serious injury – or worse."
Ms Bishop explained that the male goats were not castrated, which made them more territorial and unpredictable.
"They may look calm, but unfamiliar humans in their space can cause stress, panic, and herd disruption - especially during kidding season or when young ones are present.
"Stress increases the risk of injury, weakened immunity, and changes in feeding patterns."
The group is concerned that if someone is injured, the goats could ultimately suffer the consequences.
"The second someone does get hurt, the goats are the ones who pay the price," Ms Bishop said.
In addition to the risk posed by the animals, the terrain itself is hazardous.
The cliffs are steep and unstable, with three landslips recorded last winter alone - one of which occurred near goats live on the East Cliff.
In the past rangers have urged people to contact them rather than the emergency services if they spot any problems.
The plea came after firefighters were called to the cliffs when a goat got its head stuck in a fence.
You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Litter pickers needed to keep goats safe
Goat herd 'shouldn't need help from 999 services'
Seaside resort's clifftop goat herd set to double
Woman and dog escape as landslip hits beach huts
Cliff collapses on to beach promenade
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Channel-crossing migrants brought to shore by Border Force and lifeboats
Migrants have made the journey across the English Channel, with several Border Force vessels and RNLI lifeboats seen responding to crossings. Pictures show multiple boats with people wearing lifejackets on board arriving in Dover, Kent, on Wednesday afternoon. Others show Border Force boats following each other into the port, while further pictures show lifeboats coming into Dover filled with people standing on outside decking. The crossings continue as the number of people arriving this year so far nears 25,000. Latest Home Office figures show 24,538 people arrived in the UK after making the dangerous journey. This is up 47% compared to the same point last year (16,712), and 67% higher than in 2023 (14,732). There has been a record number of crossings for the year so far since data began being collected in 2018. A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.'
Washington Post
9 hours ago
- Washington Post
How a fluke trivia question at age 17 changed the course of my life
The world looks different through older eyes. I thought about this on a drive recently through a rolling English countryside. Patches of pasture were quilted together by stone walls stretching beyond the horizons. As a young man, I perceived such walls as picturesque. But 40 years later, the stacked stones felt weighty with history and saturated with the meaning of life. For I saw among those stones the lives of countless human beings. Before there were fences, there were only stones, millions of stones, and each one had to be wrenched and lifted from the earth, then carried or dragged to the place where it was stacked. Some fences were a mile or more apart. I pictured children barely old enough to lift them, and the long walks they made each day under their burdens of stone. I imagined these children growing into adults who shivered in the rain and sweated in the sun as they moved those stones, year in and year out, until the earth's bottomless harvest of rock finally broke them, and more took their places. 'No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,' wrote the philosopher Thomas Hobbes of the existence implicit in those fences. It was a melancholy thought. But it was followed immediately by a delirium of gratitude. Against all odds, by an inexplicable series of lucky breaks, my life has been different. Of all the places and times for a human being to be born, I've enjoyed the little window, the sliver of history, in which there has been a comfortable living available for a perpetual student who likes making sentences. The only stones I've carried have been the ones I chose. Forty-seven years ago, on the advice of a teacher, I pestered the sports editor of the Denver Post into letting me apply for a part-time job covering high school football. I was 17, several years younger than the people he had hired before for the same job. After several phone calls, he allowed me to take a three-hour battery of tests to judge my grammar, spelling and general knowledge skills. When I was done, I sat for my interview with the editor, who asked a single question. Referring to a test that challenged applicants to identify various names, he said, 'What did you put for Charles Russell?' By a fluke, I happened to know that this was an American painter of Western scenes. 'Be here on Friday at 4 o'clock,' my new boss instructed. The skein of improbabilities in that story staggers me now. That I had a teacher who encouraged me to pursue such an unlikely idea. That the editor asked that particular question. That I knew the right answer, amid the ocean of facts of which I was ignorant. Together, these unlikely events unlocked a way of being that has allowed me the privilege of gratifying my curiosity in exchange for a paycheck. Because I live in this flicker of time on this magical planet, and because I chanced to know the right trivia, I found my way to a campaign bus in 1992, where I met the beautiful reporter who became my wife of 28 years. And that lagniappe granted me the four children who are my greatest blessings. I do not believe putting words together is more meaningful or more admirable than putting stones together. Some of those fences are older than Shakespeare, and they will still be marking those fields centuries after I'm gone. By contrast, few commodities are as perishable as old journalism. What I do know is that learning things and making sentences as a daily journalist, and doing it in the company of people who share the same passion, has been a grand occupation for me, and the fact that such a thing is possible feels miraculous. Forty-seven years of it also feels like enough. My cup runneth over. Time to turn off the tap. Thanks for reading.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Migration fuels second largest annual jump in population in over 75 years
The population of England and Wales is estimated to have jumped by more than 700,000 in the year to June 2024, the second largest annual numerical increase in over 75 years, figures show. Almost all of this rise was due to international migration, with natural change – more births than deaths – accounting for only a small proportion. There were an estimated 61.8 million people in England and Wales in mid-2024, up 706,881 from 61.1 million in mid-2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Net international migration – the difference between people moving to the country and leaving – was the 'main driver' of the jump in population and accounted for 98% (690,147) of the increase, the ONS said. The number of people living in England and Wales has risen annually since mid-1982, with migration contributing most to population growth every year since mid-1999. Before then, increases were caused mainly by natural change. The rise of 706,881 in the 12 months to June 2024 is the second biggest year-on-year numerical jump in population since at least 1949, which is the earliest comparable ONS data. It is behind only the rise of 821,210 that took place in the preceding 12 months from mid-2022 to mid-2023. This means the population is estimated to have grown by 1.5 million between June 2022 and June 2024: the largest two-year jump since current records began. Nigel Henretty of the ONS said: 'The population of England and Wales has increased each year since mid-1982. 'The rate of population increase has been higher in recent years, and the rise seen in the year to mid-2024 represents the second largest annual increase in numerical terms in over 75 years. 'Net international migration continues to be the main driver of this growth, continuing the long-term trend seen since the turn of the century.'
