National Trust shoots troublesome goats

The National Trust ordered the shooting of a herd of goats that it had introduced to an area of rare heathland.

The animals were expected to graze the heath and keep the growth in check but they found more tempting morsels in nearby gardens and on a golf course. Even a 6ft (1.8m) electric fence failed to keep them confined and the trust claims that destroying them was the “only available decision”.

The 18 feral goats were put on National Trust land at Studland, the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, last October. After the scheme was judged to have failed, the trust spent three weeks rounding them up and put 15 in a pen near Corfe Castle. When they escaped again they were shot. The three that had evaded capture are still at large.

Animal welfare campaigners and residents criticised the trust yesterday for failing to find the goats a new home. One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "It’s outrageous that the National Trust can have them shot. It wasn’t their fault they could escape. The National Trust is supposed to be a conservation group."

"They brought those poor animals on to the land and because they didn’t build adequate fencing, they shot them."