Goat Shortage

Can you imagine killing off one of the goats that appear in RJ Evan’s article on the Pygmy variety? Of course not, but lock up your goats RJ because the Nepalese are getting pretty desperate to get their hands on them: they need a few thousand of the lovely creatures for slaughter over the 15 day festival that starts on 19 September and is aimed at appeasing the Hindu goddess Durga. (Never mind appeasing the poor goats).

However Nepalese officials have intervened, as they have on previous occasions, and are scouring the countryside trying to persuade farmers to give up their goats for the sake of the city dwellers of Kathmandu. Their ambition is to attract 6,000 goats into the city although so far this year only 240 have been coaxed along. Last year the target was 4,000 but only 2,300 were found, and I don’t know if Durga was appeased or not on that occasion. Of course those of an entrepreneurial turn of mind have taken to the search for sacrifice material with gusto, and the price of goats has rocketed by 25%.

Who would be a goat?