An escaped mountain goat that somehow became trapped under a bridge in Kansas City has survived a rocky rescue and may now be reunited with owners who suspect it was stolen from their farm two months ago.
“It’s the story that captured the hearts of Kansas City,” said Tori Fugate of the KC Pet Project, a nonprofit that provides the city’s animal services and operates shelters. “Forget a solar eclipse. We were on goat watch.”
After Monday’s solar eclipse, people spotted the animal, believed to be a missing goat named Chug, jumping around on the pillars supporting the bridge, high above the ground below.
Hoping to get it to safety, a driver managed to get a rope around the goat’s neck, but that only added to the danger, Fugate said. When firefighters tried to climb over the side of the bridge to catch the goat, it was startled and tried to jump to the next platform. But his hooves slipped and the rope snagged, leaving the goat hanging by his neck and not moving.
The fire brigade managed to loosen a snag, causing slack in the line. The goat then fell as much as 15 feet to the ground, landing in a spot where crews had added padding in an attempt to soften the impact, Fugate said.
A waiting veterinarian sedated the goat and the crew carried him in a sling to the top of a rocky hill, where firefighters gave him oxygen. Then he brightened up and was taken for X-rays, Fugate said.
“He miraculously has no broken bones,” Fugate said. The goat clambered up bridge supports as much as 80 feet above the ground, a fall it would not have survived, she said.
She said this was just the last part of the goat’s adventure. He entered the shelter as a stray on March 13, was nicknamed Jeffrey and was adopted later that month. But he immediately jumped the fence at his new home, she said.
“Thanks to his media fame, we contacted someone yesterday who said he looks a lot like their goat that went missing in February,” she said.
The family lives two hours away and plans to come to the shelter Wednesday to confirm he is their stolen goat, named Chug. If so, they plan to take him home, and the goat’s adoptive owners say they’re okay with that.
“He seems to be very particular about his living arrangements,” Fugate said.