These are nice people. She spoke at my son's school or Scout meeting (can't remember which) about their goats and it was obvious that she and the herders care about them. These folks have been around for years -- watch the herders with the goats and you'll see that that the goats are well taken car of. This looks like a typical media smear job from Channel 7 and Oakland Animal Control needs to explain why it was so important to call in the media.

There are radicals in all parts of society, even Animal Control, I doubt that the entire animal control organization could even feed and care for that many Goats, they would euthanize them to save money for feeding them and medicating them, just like they do dogs and cats on a daily basis. They like all other beauracracies always need more money, and love to sensationalize events like this to attract attention to themselves.

I am knowledgeable about goats and these folks should have known better - the "7 weeks" training that the one goatherder had probably did not include anything or much about the nutrition needs for goats - whatever age they were - nor how to tell when they were ill - something I teach people at my seminars - goats do not eat "anything and everything" and you must know when they are not getting the proper nutrition. It is the owner's responsibility to check up on their goatherders. I see far to much of this in my volunteer capacity with helping local authorities concerned about goat and sheep operations. I would hope in the future that more states and counties would require an operation like this to have the owner and any employees to go through a more significant goat health seminar. Donna

I'll reserve judgment on this; on one hand I have people telling me my dog is too thin; I take him to the vet and the vet says he is too fat and I need to exercise him more.

Anyone who's ever dealt with the media knows that the truth does not always get reported. Some reporters are looking to sensationalize events, especially now that many of our media are so focused on dramatic celebrity-type news instead of more difficult analysis of our real problems.

Thank you, Peter. We are ALWAYS interested in both sides of the issue - we just aren't always able to get it, of course. Lou did a great job in reaching out to them and it was good to hear their side of things.

if anyone knows these goats and business "knows" how well taken care of they are....in large herds you have to pull out the ill animals before it spreads to all animals, as the ch 7 news stated "there was another herd of 100+ goats over on the next hill and "they were all in good health"! of course the media would rather sweep that under the rug and focus on the ill goats and mis-leading the public.

In this country we raise cattle in giant feed lots where they all stand around, jammed together in each others feces. We raise chickens in windowless buildings where they are also crowded together. Who speaks for them?