Goats have returned to Angel’s Knoll

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Nothing says summer in downtown Los Angeles better than goats.

Indeed, goats! What is slowly becoming a summertime tradition on the hill right next to Angel’s Flight funicular (known as Angel’s Knoll, made famous in ‘500 Days of Summer’), is the use of four-legged friends to do away with the weeds that spring up each year.

In 2008, instead of using pollution-spewing lawnmowers, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the knoll near Broadway and 4th Street, shipped in 100 goats to eat the weeds and other delicious plant life.

This week downtown residents, employees and several local blogs were pleasantly surprised to notice their return.

It only takes about a week for the goats to clear the knoll, and at no extra charge they fertilize the land naturally. After the animals have done their job they are shipped back down to their home in San Diego and quietly wait for more work as part of an animal-friendly company called Environmental Land Management.

In 2008 Times journalist Bob Pool reported that the CRA paid about $3,000 for the goat rental, which is more than half of what it would have cost to have humans mow the weeds with machines.

After the jump, view more photos of the goats.

As we ascended Angel’s Flight we noticed a goat handler trying to affix a small camera to the head of one of the animals. After we had our lunch and descended the stairs we asked him which goat had the Goat Cam.

Excited, he asked, ‘You’ve seen the camera?’

Apparently it was lost, and he was searching for it. Looking at the voracious appetites of these friendly creatures, none of us would be surprised if one of the goats will have a bellyache tonight.

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-- Tony Pierce