Hunt continues for wayward goat

By ED BALDRIDGE

ed.baldridge@newssun.com

SEBRING -- If you see Billy, do not be afraid. He's just a goat.

Highlands County Animal Control has been tracking him since Wednesday, when calls began coming in from Golf Hammock about a goat on the golf course, according to Office Manager Pat Pablo.

"We have received four or five calls about him. People are not sure what to do when he appears in their yard, but we will keep chasing him as long as we get calls," she said.

Billy spottings have ranged from the northeast side of Highlands Hammock State Park near Golf Hammock, south of State Road 66 on Payne Road, the latest call coming form a Highlands County deputy on Thursday morning, but he seems to evade capture by going places where Animal Control has no access.

"He is sure getting around. He keeps eluding us; we lost him in the woods around the park," Pablo said between laughs.

"He was last seen in a locked area owned by the DOT near Payne Road," Pablo said.

"The Hammock park ranger said he came from around the road leading through the park to Hardee County. But no one has called in that he is missing," Pablo said.

"He's not dangerous," Pablo added. "He's quite friendly and doesn't seem afraid of people."

Billy is described as approximately 3-foot, 6 inches in height, dark brown or black in color, has large curly horns, a goatee and is male.

"I saw him in my yard, and at first I didn't know what he was. I have never seen a goat before," a caller to the News-Sun said on Thursday.

Billy has even made it to Facebook.

"Today we had a strange visitor in the park. He was a goat with big curving horns. Don't know where he came from, and he was last seen near Golf Hammock," wrote Mike Sawyer, a park ranger, on his social media wall.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Billy is not part of a pack of wild Florida mountain goats.