Chupacabra Report

Maybe not a key economic indicator, but the San Antonio Express News reports that unemployment is down among goats.

“VICTORIA — Goats soon could dot the Texas landscape as fire prevention experts try new ways to tamp down highly flammable brush, a key component in the outbreak and spread of wildfires.

City officials in Victoria started an experiment this week to see if four-legged barnyard animals could beat two-legged landscapers in clearing the city's Riverside Park.”

“The 25 to 30 Boer-Spanish goats, which started work Monday, are up by 5 a.m. and loaded into a truck at 6 a.m. By 7 a.m., they are hard at work munching their way through sometimes poisonous scrub that has closed off portions of Riverside Park for the past decade.”

“The city is paying $1,200 a week for the goats to dine on the park's brush.”

-Hmmm, $1200 divided by 28 goats by forty hours, that makes goat wages just over a dollar an hour. Probably more than I get committing music, but then, maybe goats can sight-read. I have long schemed to rent out goats as lawnmowers, but had no clue how to stop them from eating gardens, shrubs and satellite dishes. I’ll be keen to hear how this experiment pans out.