GEORGIA -- A Forsyth County woman wants to know who got her goat.
Sandra Scarboro's 18-month-old female Boer goat is recovering after being shot in the shoulder with an arrow over the weekend.
The goat is expected to survive, Scarboro said, but she’s worried the incident on her Starrbrook Crossing farm in northwest Forsyth was deliberate.
“I tried to feel in my heart that somebody didn’t do that on purpose, maybe somebody was training and the bow got away, but it didn’t look that way,” she said.
According to a Forsyth County Sheriff’s report, parts of the camouflage arrow were snipped off to prevent further injury to the goat.
Sheriff’s Lt. David Waters said the department's animal control unit is taking the investigation seriously.
“We don’t see that often,” he said. “This may be -- it’s probably --- the first I’ve seen, which would lead you to believe that it doesn’t occur often.”
Waters said animal control officers will question residents in the area in an effort to find the shooter.
“We are going to canvas the area and we will be knocking on lots of doors to try to find who is responsible for this,” he said. “I don’t know if it was somebody target practicing and actually let an arrow get away from them, or if it was children in the area playing.”
Waters said the arrow appears to be designed for training and not hunting. He said whoever shot it could be charged with cruelty to animals, which is a felony.
“If it was accidental, it’s still cruelty to animals, but it may be looked at a little different,” he said.
According to the state Department of Natural Resources, archery season in Forsyth County, which allows for hunting deer and bear, ended in January.
Scarboro said her husband discovered the wounded goat Sunday when he went to feed their animals, which include about 40 goats and three horses.
“He saw some goats were gathering together so he walked over there and that’s how he found her,” Scarboro said.
Scarboro said they took the animal to the veterinarian after talking with authorities. The Scarboros were told to turn in the remaining pieces of the weapon, once removed, for evidence.
Scarboro said the goat doesn’t have a name.
“Maybe we’ll call her Fortune,” she said, adding that the goat, which may be pregnant, was lucky despite its injury.
She plans to distribute flyers about the incident throughout her area in the hopes of finding out who shot the animal.
(Forsyth News - March 31, 2009)
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