Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

July 24, 2015

CT auctioning 13 remaining seized goats

Contributed photo This seven-month-old goat is one of 13 goats the state is set to auction.

Wanna buy a goat?

The state Agriculture Department said Friday 13 remaining goats seized last January from a maltreated Cornwall herd are being auctioned via sealed bid.

Ag Commissioner Steven K. Reviczky said the animals -- three adults and 10 others between 7 and 9 months old – are disease-free and ready to resume agricultural production.

Completed bid questionnaires must be received by the agency by close of business on Monday, Aug. 10. Successful bidders will be notified individually to arrange for transfer of the animals.

“It is our hope that these healthy animals will be returned to a productive environment,” Reviczky said.

The 74-member herd was seized in January from the Butterfield Farm Co. cheese-making operation, ag officials said. Most were malnourished and in poor health. The animals’ former owners face animal-cruelty charges.

The animals have been housed at the department’s large-animal rehabilitation facility in Niantic, where most were determined to be infected with one or more diseases, officials said.

Since then, 48 goats were sold at livestock auction, and 12 others were placed with a rescue sanctuary, the agency said. Twenty-three kids born at the Niantic facility last spring are being offered to youth groups, such as Future Farmers of America and 4-H. Any kids not taken by a youth group will be auctioned at a later date.

Agency spokesman Steve Jensen said the auction proceeds will go toward operating its Niantic rescue- rehabilitation facility.

Questionnaires may be mailed to the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, attention Steve Jensen, 165 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT 06106, or emailed to Steve.Jensen@ct.gov.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF