The mayor of an Italian island is attempting to solve an animal overpopulation problem with an unusual offer: free goats for anyone who can catch them.
Riccardo Gullo, the mayor of Alicudi, in Sicily’s Aeolian archipelago, introduced an “adopt-a-goat” program when the small island’s wild goat population grew to six times the human population of about 100.
Gullo said anyone who emails a request to the local government and pays a $17 “stamp fee” can take as many goats as they wish, as long as they transport them off the island within 15 days of approval.
Can’t just not bureaucratize it with a stamp fee. If no one was taking the goats before, they’re still not taking them.
Transporting livestock absolutely requires documentation, and $17 is getting off easy. Bringing an animal to a new location where it could potentially come in contact with local wildlife and you better be damn sure of it’s provenance, immunizations, testing, etc. It sounds like they’re not requiring any of that, presumably because it’s an isolated population and most of the requirements aren’t needed, so all they need is the document showing where the animal came from. Of all the things to be mad at bureaucracy about this is not one of them.
Ok, but chill I’m not mad, just poking tipsily at conversations :) I’m not in the market for goats.