Goat killing

The ambiguity of the title of this post covers the 2 oddly dissimilar stories about this animal in yesterday's weird news.

On Saturday afternoon, 63-year-old Robert H. Boardman, his wife Susan Chadd, and friend Pat Willits went hiking in Washington State's Olympic National Park. They encountered an aggressive mountain goat on the trail 4mi north of the visitor center, so Boardman told his companions to head back down the trail and attempted to shoo it away. Nobody saw what happened next, but apparently the goat was undeterred and they heard Boardman yell. They found him motionless with the animal standing over him. Willits frantically used his cell phone to summon help. "The mountain goat was terribly aggressive. It wouldn't move. It stared us down." says Jessica Baccus, whose family came upon the frightening scene. Her husband Bill happened to be a park scientist, so he called for help on his park radio and tried to lure the goat away. Others joined him in shouting and pelting rocks, but it was the reflection from a waved space blanket that finally ran the animal off. Jessica, a former park ranger, was finally able to approach Boardman's bleeding body and attempt CPR. A doctor who happened to be hiking took over the resuscitation attempts and a Coast Guard helicopter arrived 20 minutes later to airlift the victim out of the park. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at Olympic Medical Center. Boardman is believed to be the 1st person to have died in an incident involving an animal in Olympic National Park. The mountain goat, one of 300 that live in - but are not native to - the park, was found and killed.

On Sunday, more than 40,000 people packed the Tildiha village temple in Bihar state of India. They came with goats to sacrifice to the goddess Durga on the last day of the Hindu festival of Navratri. An argument broke out among the worshippers, many of whom were inebriated, as the stood in line for the butcher. "People were vying with each other to get their goats sacrificed first, and they had a verbal duel with the butcher," said district spokesman Gupdeshwar Kumar. The ensuing stampede killed 10 and injured 11, 3 of them critically. Tens of thousands of goats were sacrificed (caution) during the 10-day festival.

1st image) Photo by David Moskowitz of mountain goats in mist in the Goat Rocks Wilderness of the Washington Cascades, 2nd image) A goat is weighed at a sheep market in advance of the Eid al-Adha festival in Srinagar, India.