By Diana McFarland

Managing editor

Wanted: dumb and dumber goats.

The three goats hired to chew through English ivy at Windsor Castle Park thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence and devised a plan to get there. 

Smithfield Mayor Carter Williams said the goats climbed trees in order to jump over the wire fence. 

“That’s a serious goat. They had a plan,” said Williams, who witnessed the goat escapes first hand. {mprestriction ids=”1,2,3,4,5,6″}

Williams said the escapes were frequent and the goats even wandered over to a neighbor’s house and started eating the dog food. The goats also seemed to prefer the grass that the town had recently planted for the newly cleared land by the new barns constructed for use by Smithfield VA Events. 

“My phones were ringing off the hook every day,” Williams said. 

“I told them to get some dumber goats,” he said, adding that he didn’t see where the goats had eaten any of the English ivy. 

The town had put up signs alerting the public of an electric fence, but that was never installed. All that was used was the wire fence. 

The goats were from an unnamed Suffolk goat owner known by Town Council member Mike Smith. 

Williams said the Suffolk goat owner will try again. If that fails, there’s always Rent-a-Goat, said Williams.

Williams said the goats are being used to eat English ivy that is too difficult for the regular trail doctors to get to on the portion of trail that runs along Cypress Creek between the new barns and the kayak launch. There are trees being choked and are dying due to the ivy, said Williams.  

Renting goats to remove weeds is a new nationwide trend that has had mixed results. 

 The Smithfield Town Council voted in July to appropriate $1,000 for the ivy-eating goats.  {/mprestriction}