McKinney residents are no strangers to wild animals and how to deal with them — after rescuing an owl in late December 2022 and facing lawn-destroying feral hogs in January, now several house cameras caught a rogue herd of goats snacking on front yard bushes.
According to WFAA, a group of around 40 goats broke from a herd tasked with munching down the vegetation at a nearby development. Grazing goats are known for being a natural firefighting task force as they are an effective way to control dry pastures that could catch fire during summer droughts. In addition to being cute, they are a safer method of dealing with overgrown grass. In July 2022, a blaze that burned two dozen houses in Balch Springs was ignited by a mower hitting a piece of debris.
But in the Erwin Farms neighborhood in McKinney, front lawns proved too tempting for this group of adventurous goats. "The grass is greener on the other side... over here," longtime neighbor Mike Danielson told WFAA. "They were coming down the road really slowly and kinda chilled out right here."
Only a few months earlier, Danielson’s front lawn was visited by feral hogs. “The windows were kind of iced up because it was cold this morning so, real foggy,” Danielson told NBCDFW in January. “My daughter was like, 'Dad what's that?' and I just saw three big black things.”
In the latest animal tour through the neighborhood, multiple house cameras caught the furry visitors snacking on the front yards. “One of the guys on two legs was just eating my tree. It was pretty wild," said Garrett Piersall, an Erwin Farms resident. "We woke up and I said, 'You won't [expletive] believe what happened on the Cove this morning,'" he recalls telling his wife.
After the tasty treat, the goats reunited with the rest of the herd that was still working hard grazing at the development. According to WFAA, the firm that employs the goats fixed the chomped yards and replaced the parts that were destroyed. "They took care of things very quickly,” said Danielson. “They got his flowers replaced in a couple of hours.”
All neighbors have to do now is wait and see what next group of animals takes an interest in Erwin Farms.
