Photo by Matthew Perlman.
Pamplona has the running of the bulls; the Upper West Side has the running of the goats! Twenty-four goats from the Hudson Valley were released into the not-so-wild on Tuesday, and ran from their truck onto a weed-choked hill in Riverside Park that will be their home for the summer.
Like all New Yorkers, these goats like their food.
Here in @RiversideParkNY, they’ll be treated all summer to an all-you-can-eat buffet while helping the park get rid of invasive plants. I for one didn’t have to be GOAT-ed into welcoming them to the city today! #GOaTHAM pic.twitter.com/Zj8CxkLx7W
— Gale A. Brewer (@galeabrewer) May 21, 2019
There were more than 1,000 people there to greet them!!!
Look at that crowd! Photo by Mildred Alpern.
It was like the Fresh Air Fund in reverse (maybe the dirty air fund?). The goats immediately started snacking on weeds on the hill that stretches from 119th to 125th Street.
Mildred Alpern sent photos and the following account.
Cheering and clapping crowds and luminaries were on hand to put the “A” in Go(a)tham and welcome the 24 goats into Riverside Park at Riverside Drive and 120th Street this morning. Riverside Park Conservancy employees guided the goats as they strutted and galloped along the path to the grassy and hilly enclave where they will reside until the end of August. Beribboned and numbered, the goats behaved like New Yorkers – confident, casual, and cool.
Photo by Matthew Perlman.
Riverside Park Conservancy President Dan Garodnick and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer were among the crowd. Photo by Mildred Alpern.
Look at that face! Photo by Mildred Alpern.
The goats have arrived! @RiversideParkNY Their buffet includes poison ivy and mugwort. @NYCParks #Goatham pic.twitter.com/X1hU97K9dp
— Mitchell Silver (@mitchell_silver) May 21, 2019
This one seems less than enthusiastic now that he knows he isn’t going to Zabar’s. Photo by Lisa Kava.
Photo by Lisa Kava.
Yay!!! So cute!
Hope the Nannies bring the Kids.
Thank you!! Couldn’t be there, so lovely to get some images. Hoorah for the goats. And
Riverside Park. And New York/ers.
Awwww, thanks for the images and article!!! LOL, on the one dreaming about Zabar’s. I could not go today so it was nice to have that in my inbox.
It was the perfect morning to be home sick from work. Love my new neighbors!
They are fantastic! Adorable and very welcome here!
Thank for this “extra”! So glad to see the goats and may they enjoy their feast!!
It was a real New York happening!!
Once again, so very ‘totes magotes’!
Loved watching the goats go straight to work munching away. Real New Yorkers there, not a moment wasted… Fun event.
Love it! They are awesome. I hope they will have a full-time chaperone/bodyguard!
It was as fun greeting the goats as watching the very excited crowd! Can’t wait to see how they settle into their summer home!
Lovely blue goat tee shirts for $10 should be sold everywhere! Nice way to raise money! Love my goat shirt I bought 4 of them to share with friends and support the park!
[…] Here’s the notice from West Side Rag, with one nice photo and a really funny video put out by … with galloping goats and cheering fans. As the Rag says, it’s sort of like the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Except not. […]
Fabulous photos!! Thanks so much for recording this lovely event.
How wonderful of the goats and by the goats!
Can’t wait to go see them
I didn’t greet their arrival, but I “had lunch” with them at Noon. They are puzzled by pleased by their unfamiliar surroundings. The dogs present howled as though they knew them and the goats responded. Perhaps the dogs had been goats in a former life! I hope to visit them often this Summer.
Love that they eat poison ivy. My Mom needed to call the Fire Dept to set fire to the fields.
THIS IS AN IMPROVEMENT on The New Upper West Side!
We should be selling the poop for fertilizer! Farm to goat to fertilizer to food!
um .. not if poison ivy is part of their diet ..
Nice. But what will they drink?
West Side Rag is my GOAT-to pub on this story. Love it!
BAAA…rubbish. Can’t make a goat lover outta me….baaaa…baaaa.
cute.
My adult niece and I got our dork on and had a fabulous time. I sprung for park conservancy tee shirts and hats, the yellow goat bandanas were free and the crowd was a delight. One of those stellar, damned-near-perfect NYC afternoons.
Thank you for the WONDERFUL and diverse
photos of the NY goats. Typically New
York — they’re each so beautiful in so
many different ways. Kudos to the photogs
and thank you for bringing this phenomenon
home to those of us who couldn’t be on site.
Please make sure the goats come to no harm. Everyone a shepherd!
fabulous—–great—a blessing
Will there be someone there to watch them 24/7? Would HATE for an untoward event to occur . . . they are soooo cute!
How does one get to buy Tshirts in support if you were unable to attend?
can we get some rat eating snakes too?
Why are they putting the goats in in May and June. Bird nesting season. Why not July and August when the birds have finished raising their young? Won’t be many young cardinals or robins this season where the goats are.
Such a great idea! Please elaborate a bit more about the security, water, shelter,etc, that is being provided.
Thanks for the photos.
Welcome to NYC and Happy Eating, dear goats!