Goats go to work clearing brush on Bunker Hill
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Sometimes it’s just impossible to find someone who’s willing to clean up dirty lots on steep slopes. Perhaps it’s the hot sun or a lack of interest in a weed whacker. What’s a redevelopment agency to do? Send in the goats, of course. The Times’ Bob Pool has more:
The hills were alive with the sound of munching. In fact, the only things that seemed missing Monday when a herd of goats climbed up a weed-choked lot in the Bunker Hill high-rise district were Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp family singers. Leaders of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency hired 100 goats to nibble away thick weeds on a steep slope at the corner of 4th and Hill streets, next to the Angels Flight funicular. Agency officials said the goats were cheaper and more environmentally friendly than two-legged brush-clearers armed with gasoline-powered weed-whackers. And they are much more fun to watch, downtown office workers and other passersby quickly decided, as the animals fanned out over the 45-degree slope and chowed down.Commuters emerging from the Red Line subway who came face-to-face with the goats reached for their cellphones and snapped pictures. ‘My friends won’t believe this unless they see it,’ said Vicky Bravo, a student who lives south of downtown.