If you were in East Dublin at all this past April, you probably would’ve seen some goats. If you were anything like me, you would have pulled over to see just what these goats were up to. That’s what this is all going to boil down to: What were the goats doing? Why were they there?

At the start of the day, truckloads of goats were hauled into town. The trucks would park in different plots and the goats would be let loose to go on a grazing craze. A trailer could be seen in the middle of the field, presumably holding the goat herder. In the early evening, a man would emerge from the trailer with a dog, and together they would round up the goats to be swept back to whatever goat haven they came from.

According to Dublin City officials, the city will be welcoming a Kaiser medical center, a hotel/apartment/store combination, and more apartment complexes in these freshly goat-mowed areas. The goats were there as vegetation control to get rid of any plants that were in the plots. Our four-legged workers turned the lands from fields you could barely see across to flat spots of dirt.

Goats are an environmentally-conscious alternative to herbicides or machines. Being surrounded by residential areas, using either on the mentioned projects could cause health issues or too much noise. Goats are relatively silent, get the job done, and are generally regarded as too cute to be bothered by!