UBC October 2026 - The Goat Who Had Other Plans 🐐

Photo Credit: Femke Hansen on Pexels

In Safenwil, a 20 minutes drive from me, a runaway goat was keeping the region on its toes, and a true happy ending awaited it after his escape.

The animal was actually supposed to be slaughtered at the local butcher shop’s slaughterhouse, but took advantage of a brief moment of inattention and fled.

The young billy goat escaped along with two other goats while they were being unloaded at the slaughterhouse. While the other two animals were quickly recaptured, the goat managed to make a run for freedom.

A local animal lover learned about the little rascal on Facebook and contacted the slaughterhouse manager. She has been officially allowed to buy the billy goat and give him a new home.

There is a catch though: our billy goat is extremely nimble and kept himself hidden. Before he could move to his new sanctuary, he must first be successfully captured in the Safenwil/Kölliken area.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time animals have escaped in Safenwil: Three years ago, two goats escaped from the same slaughterhouse, survived for weeks in the forest, and were ultimately allowed to continue living at a sanctuary as well.

And then there is another very Swiss element to this whole story. Many Swiss towns and villages have their own Facebook groups called “Du bisch vo [place name]”, literally, “You’re from [place]” where locals post everything from lost-and-found notices and old photos to questions, complaints, recommendations and general village gossip. 

Naturally, I joined “Du bisch vo Safenwil” for one reason only: Billy. 🐐

And it had turned into something of a community scavenger hunt. On September 13, someone posted a photo with the caption:

“The lost goat is now at Hardstrasse 19 in Safenwil. Time: 8:20.”

That’s it. No elaborate explanation. Just a photo, an address and a timestamp.

At this point, I’m half expecting the next update to read:

“Billy spotted behind the post office. 11:43. Moving north. Bring carrots.”

In the meantime, it even paid a surprise visit to a sports nutrition store. “My father just said, ‘there’s a goat in there,’” the store manager told a local news station. “That was very confusing, because it’s not something you expect in everyday life.”

Now, hearing about goats at the slaughterhouse raised a question I never thought about:

Do people actually eat goat meat?

I mean, goat cheese? Absolutely. But goat meat? I had no idea.

So I went down the rabbit, I mean goat hole and found out that goat meat really is a niche product in Switzerland.

And there is a rather obvious reason why it exists in the first place: you can't have milk-producing female goats without baby goats. About half of those kids are male, and male goats don't produce milk. Traditionally, farmers don't raise them to adulthood, so the young males become what we call "Gitzi", young goat meat.

And this is where Easter comes in.

Goats generally have their kids in winter, meaning that by spring the young animals are at exactly the right age for the traditional Easter Gitzi season. The custom is particularly strong in Ticino and parts of French-speaking Switzerland. This is why I don't know about it - I live in the German speaking part of Switzerland.

Gitzi meat is considered tender and mild, without the strong flavor people sometimes associate with older goat meat.

But then I wondered: if Easter is the big goat-meat season, why was this particular goat on his way to the slaughterhouse in September?

It turns out that Easter isn't the whole story. Swiss goat farmers also raise so-called autumn or pasture Gitzi, which spend the summer grazing and can be ready for slaughter at around six to eight months old.

Older goats are a different story: their meat is mainly used for sausages and dried meat, including specialties such as "Geiss-Salsiz".

So my little Google adventure taught me that goat meat isn't actually an Easter-only affair.

Which means our September runaway goat wasn't necessarily an oddity at all.

He was simply a goat who had other plans.

But the story doesn't end here. 

After several days, they finally managed to lure the animal with the help of Leo the billy goat. 

Wait? Leo the billy goat helped luring another billy goat?

At first, the rescuers (and the public to begin with) thought the escaped animal was a billy goat. Later, it turned out to be a female. “We named her Freya. That name stands for freedom, independence, and strength. It fits her story very well,” says the owner of the Waldheim Animal Shelter,

The animal sanctuary is now looking for a godmother or godfather to help support Freya's care. She is expected to go out to pasture with her fellow goats very soon.