Goat screams prompt 911 call, police search near Healdsburg

What sounded like a person screaming for help led a Healdsburg jogger to call 911 Tuesday morning, sending police on a search only to find the source was a bleating goat, emergency dispatch officials said.

The goat was crying by the side of a second, fallen goat in an area of the Healdsburg Ridge Open Space Preserve, where coyotes are often heard, dispatchers said.

The jogger called 911 at about 8 a.m., and she was adamant that the cries sounded like a human screaming for help, dispatchers said.

Although the area is outside city limits, a Healdsburg police officer was close to the area and he was on the trail by 8:09 a.m., officials said. He met the jogger at the end of Arabian Way and hiked into the preserve.

They found the source of the screaming at 8:20 a.m., beyond the trail and past a pond.

It wasn’t yet known what would be done about the surviving goat.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.