VANCOUVER — Vancouver park board staff fear most of the Pygmy and dwarf goats retired from the Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard were sold for meat at a local auction yard.

In January 2011, as part of its plan to close the popular petting zoo, the park board said it closely screened and then gave a small Fraser Valley hobby farm 17 goats and four sheep under a strict adoption agreement that would allow the animals to live out the rest of their days in peace and safety.

The rest of the large menagerie of pets, including another seven goats, two cows, 26 sheep, two pot-bellied pigs, two donkeys, a llama, a pony and an assortment of birds, rabbits and other small animals, was spread to 12 other approved adoption homes.

But auction records reveal that within weeks of adopting his herd, including nine wether (castrated male) goats and eight doe (female) goats, the hobby farmer began getting rid of the animals, violating clauses in the signed contract that prevented their sale or disposal. The adopter also operates a raw dog food business and sells “all-natural” beef, lamb, turkeys and eggs.

Goats that went by the name Kahlua, Jack, Daniels, Tina, Tink, Tank, Sammy, Andy, Charlie, Chester, Champ, Cadbury, Tryka, Shyka, Sadie and Sierra are gone or unaccounted for. One or two of the does may still be at the hobby farm but the rest have disappeared. Also dead, by the adopter’s admission, are the four sheep: Coco, Chanel, Krystal and Belle.

The park board is now investigating after The Vancouver Sun was tipped by several people who said that most of the 17 goats, including all of the wethers and most of the does, had been sold at a local livestock auction yard. Within an hour of The Sun visiting the hobby farmer last week to try to find the herd, a senior park board official also did a site visit demanding to know where the animals were.

A complete story, including interviews with the hobby farmer and others will appear in Monday’s Vancouver Sun.

The news of the animals’ disposal shook the park board, which said it had tried hard to make sure all of the denizens of its now-closed children’s farmyard would be well cared for.

As a result, the park board is now contacting the other 12 adoption homes to check on the status of the remaining farmyard animals.

The park board was expected to issue a statement Sunday afternoon indicating that it is asking the city’s legal department to determine if the adopter can be sued, and that it has demanded the return of any remaining animals from the Stanley Park petting zoo.

Gordon Barber, the park board’s manager of revenue operations, said the park board did not know the hobby farmer sold meat for human and dog consumption until notified by The Sun.

Had the park board been aware of this during the screening process, the hobby farmer would have been ineligible for the adoption, Barber said.

When The Sun visited the hobby farmer at his home he identified to a reporter and photographer one female goat he said was from Stanley Park and was due to give birth. He also had three other goats, none of which he specifically identified as being former Stanley Park farmyard animals. One of them had recently given birth.

The news devastated Park Board chairwoman Constance Barnes, who on Friday said she had ordered staff to try to immediately reclaim any remaining petting animals from the adoption home.

“I feel sick to my stomach. This is heartbreaking, really heartbreaking. This is my worst bloody nightmare,” she said.

Barnes said she fretted about how children who had loved the animals would take the news.

“I can handle this, I am an adult. But my concern is for the kids and the little ones out there that knew those creatures, and to whom we made a promise to that they were going to better homes. We were taking them out of the environment they were in because they deserved to live their lives out in a really lovely, beautiful kind of space.

“I am worried about the kids and what are the moms and dads going to be telling their little ones, and what about the people who loved those animals and worked there. They were their family.”

Barnes said she wants to know if the park board did enough to make sure the animals were treated well. But she was extremely angry at the hobby farmer’s description of the goats as “nasty” and “violent”.

“They were nasty? They were petting goats. Then give them back. We’d relocate them. Call the park board, call the city. He had other options than what he’d done with them,” she said. “We had people begging for those animals.”

The park board said it had done extensive screening of all potential adoptees of its animals, and had immediately discarded from the pile of more than 100 applications any petting zoos, commercial farm operations or places that sold meat.

“We didn’t want any of the animals to go to any kind of a commercial enterprise, so if it was another petting zoo or someone that ran a business, particularly if the business on site related to the raising of animals to be slaughtered and used for food purposes (they were screened out),” Barber said.

Staff did a site visit of every shortlisted adoption home, and also insisted on at least two references, including one from a veterinarian, he explained.

According to the park board, the hobby farmer signed his “animal adoption contract” on Jan. 31. The two-page contract spelled out numerous provisions, including that he would “give these animals humane treatment and care at all times for the remaining life of the animal.”

It also specified that he could “not sell, trade, loan or give away these animals unless authorized by the Vancouver park board” and that they couldn’t be used for roping or cruel sports.

Barber said the park board visited the hobby farm in late January before he was approved. On April 26 staff also received a further report and photos from the man about the purported health of the animals.

“Everyone is settled in very well, they’re all loved. They all love their new home. All the animals are eagerly awaiting to be let out on to the pastures, which will be as soon as the rain stops and the grass grows, in a couple of weeks,” the hobby farmer told them in the report.

“I have had lots of people with their kids come out with their kids and even my church group with their kids to pet the goats so the animals have been getting lots of attention. They like to be petted, photos sent.”

The park board provided The Sun with records showing the name, type, sex and age of every animal it placed at the home. The information also contained veterinarian and feeding records. Two of the sheep, Krystal and Belle, were 13 years old. The other two, Coco and Chanel, were born three years ago. Of the 17 goats the adopter received, four were African Pygmy, seven were Nigerian Dwarf and the rest were unspecified. Most of the goats were about five years old. The youngest were Minnie, Jack and Daniels, aged three. The oldest was Tryka, 11.

jefflee@vancouversun.com

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