El Paso icon Bob the Goat died from the stress of capture while tethered by its horns to a tree in the Franklin Mountains, a necropsy report from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirms.
After Texas Parks and Wildlife placed the goat’s remains in the trailer overnight, a field necropsy, or post-mortem examination, was performed on site that determined Bob was unable to withstand the stressful situation. Bob’s old age was also a factor.
The incident occurred in August after several failed attempts to tranquilize the goat in June and July.
Documents, including photographs, obtained by El Paso Matters shed new light on the circumstances surrounding the feral goat’s death. Known affectionately as “Bob” and “Franklin” to locals, the domestic goat roamed the Franklin Mountains for at least nine years before Texas Parks and Wildlife tried to relocate Bob to Licon Dairy, a family farm and petting zoo in San Elizario in far East El Paso County.
Bob’s relocation was a key step in preparing a safe environment for the desert bighorn sheep, which Texas Parks and Wildlife returned to El Paso in December.
Bighorns, a wild sheep native to the Franklin Mountains, are vulnerable to disease transmitted from domestic sheep and goats. After the bighorns were wiped out from their native mountains in West Texas, the state has made a decades-long effort to restore them to their historical homes.
The Franklin Mountains are critical to the repopulation of desert bighorn sheep in Texas.
A bighorn ram leaps away from a transport trailer into Franklin Mountains State Park on Dec. 4, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
The intention had always been to capture the goat alive and relocate it with the least amount of stress possible, said Froylán Hernández, desert bighorn sheep program leader at Texas Parks and Wildlife.
“Folks of El Paso love this goat, so we thought, what can we do to provide access to this goat?” Hernández said. “That one dairy already had a petting zoo, so we thought it was perfect. He’ll have a new home and we’ll tell the folks of El Paso where to see him.”
How did Bob the Goat die?
Bob was a Boer goat, a domestic breed that originated in South Africa. Over the years, hikers and travelers along Transmountain Road delighted in spotting the white goat with its brown curling horns and brown eye patches.
Though Texas Parks and Wildlife officials identified the goat as male, recent records provided by the agency indicated Bob was a hermaphrodite – meaning the goat may have had both testes and ovaries.
Hernández spoke to El Paso Matters about the goat’s capture, saying he hoped to clear misinformation. Online commenters have accused Texas Parks and Wildlife of strangling the goat to death – which the necropsy report states was not the case.
Many have claimed there was “no reason” to move the goat.
Prior to capture and testing, there was no way of knowing whether Bob carried M.ovi, Hernández said. M.ovi is a bacterium that causes respiratory disease often fatal to desert bighorn sheep. Wild sheep populations in all the Western states and Texas have suffered die-offs because of pneumonia outbreaks.
Beginning in June, Texas Parks and Wildlife attempted and considered several different methods for capturing the goat, but attempts were unsuccessful, according to the agency’s necropsy report.
Hernández said an opportunity arose Aug. 13 when a Texas Parks and Wildlife worker spotted the goat on his drive through the Franklin Mountains. The worker went out on his own to rope the goat, he said. Roping is a standard practice used in animal husbandry.
After tethering the goat to a nearby tree by the horns and with a makeshift halter, the worker left to collect a trailer, which would have taken 15 to 20 minutes roundtrip, according to the necropsy report. The goat was dead upon return.
“Pictures of the carcass were taken from different angles to demonstrate no entry/exit wounds, maltreatment, wounds, etc,” Hernández wrote in an email Aug. 14 to parks officials.
A photo of the goat’s mouth shows only three bottom teeth. The missing incisors are evidence of the goat’s age, according to the necropsy report.
Washington D.C. Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory tested a nasal swab and lung tissue taken from the carcass. The tissue did not appear to have disease or infectious agents, but the lung was already in an advanced state of decomposition that may have obscured findings, according to the histopathology report. The pathologist did not detect M.ovi in the nasal swab.
Texas Parks and Wildlife disposed of the goat’s body in a landfill in Sierra Blanca, about 90 miles southeast of El Paso in Hudspeth County, according to internal email communication.
Previous goat capture methods failed
The necropsy report outlined pros and cons to various capture methods in addition to roping. Hernández said the agency anticipated public pushback, even if the goat stayed alive. The intention was to keep the operation a low profile so the state could explain to the public what happened after Bob’s arrival to Licon Dairy, he said.
While capturing the goat with a net gun from the air would be quickest, it would also be the most expensive, require chasing the animal with a helicopter, cause the most stress to the animal and draw the most public attention, the necropsy report reads.
A net dropped or fired on the stationary goat requires pre-baiting the goat to a site to get it acclimated to visiting that area, then observing the goat’s behavior pattern and site visitations. These methods are time consuming because the observer would need to be at the pre-baited site at the time the goat comes, the report reads.
The agency instead went with tranquilizing or roping the goat, because these methods presented fewer logistical challenges, Hernández said. Roping the goat would require getting in close range, however.
Texas Parks and Wildlife workers made two attempts in the summer to track down, dart and sedate Bob the Goat, first on June 30 and a second time on July 24. Both attempts failed because of unfavorable conditions, the report reads. Hernández also said about three people attempted to lasso the goat on one occasion, but the goat got away.
Wildlife biologist Jose Etchart and state veterinarian Ken Waldrup made the first darting attempt, but it was windy at the time, according to documents from Texas Parks and Wildlife. Wind isn’t optimal to shoot darts because if the shooter misses, they need to recover the dart, otherwise there is a dart with a sedative lying around somewhere that needs to be accounted for to the Food and Drug Administration, Hernández explained to El Paso Matters.
The darters also have to pay attention to the goat’s location, Hernández said. It can take up to five minutes for the drugs to take effect. In that time the goat could travel to the edge of a bluff, get drowsy and then fall to its death.
Etchart had located signs of the goat’s loafing site, however, an area where the goat would have rested. The agency’s plan was then to pre-bait the goat with alfalfa and water near the loafing site to minimize search time, Hernández said.
“It would also be very beneficial if SP staff contacts Jose every time they see Franklin,” he wrote in a June 30 email to Franklin Mountains State Park Superintendent Cesar Mendez and park interpreter Lydia Pagel. “The baiting and reporting of observations will help us pattern its movement/behavior and develop a plan to quickly mobilize, locate and dart the animal.”
“We would like to have Franklin removed from the mountain by mid-August. I believe if we work together and plan correctly, removing Franklin shouldn’t turn into a high profile project.”
But darting did turn into a public spectacle, Hernández said later to El Paso Matters.
“The SWAT team got called on us,” he said. “People saw a couple of folks on the mountain with a gun. People driving by thought a sniper was on the loose. It turned into a theatrical thing. Law enforcement was there, the sheriff was there.”
Protecting desert bighorn sheep from disease
Texas Parks and Wildlife recorded its first sighting of Bob at Franklin Mountains State Park in 2015. A histopathology report said the goat weighed 130 pounds and was estimated to be more than 10 years old at the time of its death.
The typical lifespan of domestic goats in free-range settings is about 10 to 13 years.
There are a few theories as to how Bob ended up in the Franklin Mountains. Some speculate that Bob escaped from a farm. One rumor is a developer brought a herd of goats to West El Paso to graze on weeds, but Bob wandered away.
Mendez thinks Bob was once someone’s pet. It’s common for people to get rid of their pets in the mountains, he said.
“Most likely, in my opinion, somebody’s pet started growing up and they said, ‘We can’t have it anymore,’” he said in September when Bob’s death became public news.
Mendez discourages people from dumping their pets in the state park. Bringing domestic sheep and goats into the Franklin Mountains could introduce M.ovi bacteria to the native population, potentially wiping out the desert bighorn sheep that were released in December.
Texas Parks and Wildlife translocated about 80 sheep – half of them rams, half of them ewes – from Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area in West Texas. Most of the ewes were pregnant, so people can expect a new crop of lambs born in the Franklin Mountains for the first time in more than 70 years.
Bighorn sheep are released into Franklin Mountains State Park on Dec. 4, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Mendez hopes another source herd can eventually be established in the state park. Currently the desert bighorn sheep’s only source herd is at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area, but it’s risky to “have all your eggs in one basket because what if something happens to the population where they’re coming from,” he said.
Moving Bob the Goat from the Franklin Mountains was an undesired event with an undesired outcome, but it was something that had to be done, he said.
“It was too high of a risk leaving (Bob) the goat there without knowing if it was a carrier of that fatal bacteria,” Mendez said. “We can’t repopulate other ranges without sheep born here in the Franklin Mountains.”
The post New details emerge from ‘Bob the Goat’ necropsy report appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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