Google Ditches Lawn Mowers, Hires Goats. Is PETA Ok With This?

By Ben Chinn
Recently Google decided to lower it’s carbon footprint by getting rid of lawn mowers and hiring goats to trim the lawns at the Mountain View HQ. Dan Hoffman, Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services released this statement :
“At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we’ve rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we’re not “kidding”). A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers."
When PETA was asked to respond to the possible animal exploitation they had this to say :
“PETA has no problem with letting goats do what goats want to do (e.g., look cute and eat weeds), but we do have concerns about how the goats may be transported, whether they are provided with access to shelter during storms and shade as well as water during hot weather, where they are housed when they aren’t “working,” what kind of veterinary care they receive, and what becomes of old and/or excess goats. PETA has found over and over that whenever animals are used by a business to make money, corners are cut and animals often suffer as a result. And that really gets our goat, if you’ll pardon the pun.”
Photo: shelleylyn/Flickr
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Related causes: Animals
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