Goats missing from Bayer Farm in Santa Rosa found, returned

Two miniature goats that went missing two days after Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins and her family donated them to Santa Rosa’s Bayer Farm have been found, Hopkins said Saturday.

“The goats have been returned,” Hopkins said Saturday in a text message to a Press Democrat reporter.

Hopkins said it appears the suspected thief may have felt guilty or felt some “social pressure” and left the goats tied to a fence more than a mile away, near Hearn Avenue and Highway 101.

“I think they were hungry and thirsty, but they are happily eating and drinking now,” Hopkins said Saturday afternoon.

Hopkins said a woman saw the goats tied to a fence with a rope after she read a newspaper article reporting that they had been taken sometime late Thursday or early Friday.

Hopkins said her daughters, 3 and 5, helped raise the miniature goats and were heartbroken when they learned that they had been taken from Bayer Farm, an agricultural-?themed city park on West Avenue that is managed by the nonprofit LandPaths.

The family had dropped off the 1-year-old Nigerian goats and said their goodbyes on Wednesday. Hopkins’ husband Emmett, who works part time for LandPaths, received a phone call Saturday from Bayer Farm garden ?coordinator Jonathan Bravo informing him that the goats had been found.

Hopkins said she and her husband didn’t tell their daughters about the find until they were sure they were in fact the same goats. Hopkins said social media, informational fliers and newspaper articles generated a great deal of interest in the community and likely led to the goats being located and possibly surrendered by whomever took them.

She said staff at LandPaths will be reviewing security measures at Bayer Farm to ensure the safety of the goats. The lock to the sturdy enclosure had been smashed and the gate forced open.

Hopkins said there was also damage to other structures at Bayer Farm.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.