Georgia: Grade school aged boy charged with animal cruelty after shooting neighbor's goat with an arrow

GEORGIA -- Authorities have charged a young boy in the shooting of a pet goat last month in northwestern Forsyth County.

Sandra Scarboro said her 18-month-old female Boer goat has recovered since being wounded in the shoulder March 29 with what was apparently an arrow used for training.

The Forsyth County Sheriff’s animal control unit handled the investigation.

Sheriff’s Lt. David Waters said a grade-school age boy faces a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals. The child’s name has not been released because of his age.

“We finished the investigation [April 22] and we’re going to turn it over to juvenile [court],” he said. “We’re going to let them handle the outcome of this case.”

The goat is one of about 40 on Scarboro’s Starrbrook Crossing farm, where she also keeps three horses.

She said she hopes the boy has learned his lesson.

“I just want him to realize that animals have a soul and a heart too and that not one animal deserves to be a target like that,” she said.

Scarboro said the incident was especially hard on her 6-year-old son.

“Joseph got so mad that somebody tried to shoot his goat that he said, ‘I have to go get a gun,’” she said. “I mean he’s 6 and he got so upset.

Mental health intervention is needed for children who torture animals for fun

“For us that was the hardest part, to make him understand that we don’t want the same thing that the boy did. That we have to deal with it in a different way.”

Scarboro originally considered calling the goat Fortune, but said lately she has referred to it as Arrow.

“She’s doing good and I guess she was a lucky goat,” Scarboro said.

(Forsyth News - April 29, 2009)

Earlier:

• Georgia: Pet goat shot in shoulder with arrow
• Georgia: Woman’s wounded goat on the mend