If you live near Provo, Utah and were thinking about taking the family dog along for a hiking trip, you might want to leave it at home instead.
Officials in the area are warning hikers that are utilizing the park area north of Provo to exercise extreme caution if you were to take your furry friend with you on the mountain trails. If hikers do decide to be brave and take their four legged friends, rangers are imploring to have them on leashes and keep them close by, considering that there are apparently some killer goats traversing the mountain.
Utah County officials told FOX-13 TV:
“It is the responsibility of dog owners to keep their animals under control at all times, as well as to pack out their waste. Allowing your dogs to chase goats carries fines akin to poaching.”
In the past three weeks, there have been three separate incidents where a dog was killed by being pushed off the mountain or gored by mountain goats. Most recently, on August 19th, a dog that was not on a leash was chasing and bothering a female mountain goat and its offspring. The mother goat stepped in to defend her young, pushing the dog off the cliff, with the dog dying from the fall.
A woman by the name of Whitney Albee posted to Facebook about her experience hiking in the area with her husband. She confirmed that the goats in the area definitely seem to be territorial:
“We went backpacking this weekend up Mt. Timp. The mountain goats are everywhere. And not afraid to get close. We were warned at the station that 2 dogs had been killed within the last 2 weeks.
One was pushed off a cliff the other one was gored. We were told to keep our dog on a leash the whole time. The goats popped around everywhere unexpectedly.”
Some pretty scary stuff, though it does seem like most of the incidents have been provoked by the off-the-leash dogs. A local news story about the mountain goats and their recent run of violence can be viewed below:
