'Cow town' may be amended to 'goat city'

If you've been to the transfer station recently you may have seen them - the three escape artists that are currently making a home amid the refuse and recycling.

For months, three goats have wandered the transfer station, with many questioning how they got there. There is, however, a certain fitness to the notion that two towns with rural aspirations have farm animals living at their joint transfer station.

According to Lana Bonacassio, of the Middlesex Livestock Auction on Cherry Hill Road, the goats escaped while the person who purchased them was trying to load them into a truck this summer. Bonacassio said it was unclear if the goats were purchased through the auction or from someone waiting on the docks, and she has no records of who the buyer was.

The goats did not have to travel far to find a home. The three goats, thought to be two does and a buck, meandered down the street to the transfer station, also on Cherry Hill Road.

Ellen Mauro, of the Durham Health and Building Department, said that two goats appeared first, followed soon by a third. Several people tried to catch and corral the goats, she said, but were unsuccessful as the goats were skittish.

When cold weather arrived in December, people at the transfer station decided to build them a hut for shelter. The idea was if humans provided food and water they might become a bit tamer and able to be caught.

The auction, however, has no plans to try to recover them because Bonacassio said they don't own the goats.

In the meantime, the transfer station might want to plan for an expanding brood. Durham resident Paul VanSteenbergen said he believes it likely that the two female goats are pregnant and could be expecting babies anywhere between March and May.