Motorists and walkers have already been able to see them wandering in the Nerthe massif, in the west of Marseille. More than half a thousand goats, escaped from various herds, in particular from the production of cheese, roam freely there. But now, between the sixty goats identified in 2011 and the current herd, the friendly animals have attracted enemies and are now dividing, starting with the mayor of Châteauneuf-les-Martigues.
“It’s a public security problem,” said Roland Mauren, elected since 2014 at the head of this town of nearly 20,000 inhabitants. “Goats are considered as stray domestic animals and in the event of an accident, the mayor is legally responsible,” says Roland Mauren. Because there you go, regularly goats graze on the side of the roads, and in particular of the highway 55.
“The new vine plants, they are all lost”
“I live in Marseille and work at the wine cooperative of Saint Julien, I have them every day on the two-way dual carriageway (the A55). At one point, there is a biker who is going to pay one ”, fears Brice Lalanne. However, no “serious bodily injury has been reported” so far, inform the Bouches-du-Rhône firefighters.
The damage, for the winegrowers of the wine cooperative of Saint-Julien, is clearly visible. “The new vine plants, they are all lost”, breathes Brice. For the 200 hectares of the cooperative, the time has come to assess the damage during this harvest season. “We have a meeting on Monday to take stock. Goats do not attack the fruit but the leaves, interrupting photosynthesis. And when 80 land on a plot, there are three vines left with leaves ”.
History makes each other goat
So the authorities are trying to seize the goat by the horns, to reduce the population “with respect for animals”, assures Roland Mauren. Parks have been set up to attract them, sterilize them and capture some to hand them over to volunteer breeders. Nearly 250 were thus taken out of the massif in 2020. But they are still too many.
The association “Our goats on our hill”, created in 2016 and supported by the Brigitte Bardot foundation, pursues the same objective of controlling the goat population and their distance from crops and roads. But the rag has been burning with the municipality since they refused this summer to give them animals they had captured in their own enclosure. Since then, accusations and denials have been raining down on the actions of each other. The town hall would thirst the herds, and the association would not pursue its objective of population control effectively enough, via adoptions. History makes each other goat, and it is not over yet.