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Found in LA: Goats in Downtown!
If you happened to see some serious goat-on-grass action Monday at 4th and Hill Streets in Downtown, your eyes were not deceiving you. There were, indeed, 100 goats put there deliberately--not as some Fraternity prank--to help clear the lot of overgrowth. LAist Featured Photos contributor Jonathan Alcorn (aka Sundogg) grabbed this great goat shot for us, and explains (via the LA Times):
Sep 09, 2008 - Los Angeles, California, USA - A herd of goats has been hired by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency to clear away thick weeds on a steep slope at the corner of 4th and Hill streets, next to the Angels Flight. Agency officials said the goats were cheaper and more environmentally friendly than a human brush clearing crew with gas powered weed whackers. Downtown office workers and other passersby gather to watch the goats eating on the slope.
It comes down to pure economics; renting the goats costs $3,000, whereas renting people would cost around $7, 500. The goats are expected to chow down on the hillside for ten days, but don't go near them--they are covered in poison oak (and surrounded by an electrified fence). Once the hillside is cleared it will become "the site of a third mixed-use California Plaza tower."
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