Wild goats are overrunning a small island in Sicily, and the local mayor has offered a novel solution: Give them away to anyone who is willing to come and coax one off the island and into a boat.
Alicudi is the smallest island in Sicily’s Aeolian Archipelago, a two-hour plus boat ride from Sicily. It’s only 5 square kilometers, with a population of 100 people—and somewhat more than 600 goats, whose numbers have grown exponentially.
Formerly living on the island’s cliffs and mountains, they have begun to impinge on living areas, eating gardens and crops, damaging stone walls and wandering into homes. They are not native to the island; some were brought to Alicudi about twenty years ago as part of a plan to breed them. When the plan was abandoned, so were the goats.
Island mayor Riccardo Gullo said the “adopt a goat” initiative was the best choice. “We absolutely do not want to even consider culling the animals, so we are encouraging the idea of giving them away,” he said. “Anyone can make a request for a goat, it doesn’t have to be a farmer, and there are no restrictions on numbers.”
