It is straight out of a fairy tale.
Three goats, roaming freely on some 100 acres, eating what the land has to offer in grass and frolicking freely.
In Clinton, this is a fairy tale come true.
For some three months, these three females, also called does, have been evading capture, entertaining motorists traveling on southbound Interstate 95 near Exit 63 and enjoying all that freedom has to offer.
They graze on land that is part privately owned and part state owned.
Travelers get a clear view of them atop a rock outcropping adjacent to I-95, but they often venture down near the guardrail. There are no bona fide reports they have roamed onto the highway, according to Clinton Municipal Animal Control Officer Ryan Sheehan.
Currently, there are no concerns about their safety.
Up close and personal with one of Clinton’s now famous roaming goats. (Courtesy photo)
“There is ample vegetation,” said Sheehan. “They are doing quite well. They appear to have chosen a rocky outcropped area to hang out on because they are really adept at climbing and no predator can reach them there faster than they can get away.”
“Where they are, they are not just content, they are thriving,” said Sheehan. “They are living their absolute best life.”
Sheehan has fielded many calls regarding the goats “just to make sure I’m aware.”
“Of course I’m aware,” he said. “Over time when it became common knowledge that ‘Yes, we’re all aware,’ it was just to report sightings. Like a local novelty.”
“People are very curious,” he said.
They have amassed a sort of cult following, with local Facebook posts detailing sightings, concern and amusement and photos.
They even have their own Facebook page, The Clinton Roaming Goats.
“I think it’s great,” said Marten Brown, the administrator of the goat’s public Facebook page.
“It’s a great story, it’s funny, it’s interesting and it’s a topic people keep talking about,” the Clinton resident said.
Due to their upbringing, they are not used to human interaction and have eluded capture, although many attempts have been made to return them to their home.
The animals were brought into town in July by owners of a hobby farm on Old Nod Road “to clear brush,” said Sheehan.
The 27-acre property is home to another goat, a horse and chickens.
They escaped “by being goats,” he added. “They just got through the fencing.”
Owner Bri Godsey did not respond to requests for comment but is active on The Clinton Roaming Goats Facebook page.
“They are very skittish which we didn’t know when we picked them up so it’s hard to get close to them but they are being watched closely have access to lots of food and water sources,” she wrote three weeks ago.
Godsey and Sheehan confirm they are not easy to capture.
“They do not come to people, they do not find any comfort in people, they’ve never been leashed or harness trained,” Sheehan said.
The three roaming goats have captured the hearts of shoreline residents. (Courtesy photo)
“They, unfortunately, come from a farm where they were free roam, so they are quite used to living off the land,” he said.
Godsey confirmed this.
“As of right now there is not much to do,” she wrote three weeks ago. “When we go to wrangle them up we know that a lot of people love them now and are willing to help if we need it.”
Sheehan has been working with Godsey and the Durham response team, DART. Other groups that have had cursory involvement include Connecticut State Police, state animal control and the state Department of Transportation.
“I appreciate everyone’s interest, but if people could not try to help,” he said. “My biggest fear is that someone will try to restrain them and instead they will run away and actually run into traffic.”
Prior to these admonitions from the police, both Brown and Killingworth resident, Hannah Sgroi, have ventured into the woods to see the goats.
Sgroi has had a love of goats back to her childhood when she used to visit a goat farm to celebrate her birthday every year.
After seeing them “every single day” during her daily commute from Killingworth to New Haven, the 27-year-old decided, on Sunday, Aug. 17, to try to help to capture them on her way to the grocery store.
“I stayed super still and I used my super embarrassing goat call that is clearly very effective, and they came running over to me,” she said.
The call is “a little bit of a scream and a little bit of a yodel, mixed together,” she said.
“The black one is the most confident and was coming right up to me and taking leaves from my hand,” she said.
She stayed for two hours, leaving only after her husband called her and told “the police say that you need to leave immediately because if you are to drive them closer to the highway, you’ll be held responsible for any accidents that might happen, so you need to leave the woods.”
Hannah Sgroi’s love of goats goes back years. Here she is on her birthday in 2017. (Courtesy photo)
“I had shorts on, I was covered in cuts and bruises, I had leaves in my hair,” she said. “I must have looked crazy when I was leaving the woods that day, but I couldn’t live with myself just driving by and knowing they were so close to the highway.”
She has not been back since, but “I watch from afar.”
For now, the goats will be enjoying their freedom as long as they are satiated by the land.
“I’ve set up an area where I will regularly leave buckets of food,” said Sheehan. “There’s a camera situated nearby, and we try to record how often they come to the area, so we monitor their health.”
“The hope is once all of the abundance of vegetation dies back in the winter they will become more reliant on the food that I leave and hopefully easier to catch,” he said.
