The mayor of an Italian island is offering free goats to any tourist who catches one.
Alicudi is a volcanic island located off the northern coast of Sicily, Italy. The island is very small, with only about 100 inhabitants.
This place is about 2-3 hours by boat from the mainland, there are no hotels, only one bar but its wildness still attracts some tourists. To get around, visitors have to walk or use donkeys and mules.
Alicudi is one of the seven islands of the Aeolian Islands and has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 2000.
It is known that about 20 years ago, a farmer released some goats on the island. After that, the number of goats began to increase rapidly. Normally, there are about 100 goats roaming around the island, but this year the number has increased dramatically.
“There are 600 goats,” Riccardo Gullo, mayor of Alicudi, told Sky News. “The island is very small, so there are too many goats.”
The goats here have started to cause problems for the people. They used to live on the cliffs of the island but now they have started to wander into people's yards and even into their houses.
“We didn’t want to think about destroying the goats, so we thought about giving them away,” Gullo said. “Anyone can take a goat, they don’t have to be farmers, and there’s no limit on the number of goats.
If someone were able to domesticate a goat, it might be a good and humane way to control the soaring goat population.”
Anyone can come here and take the goats home, as long as they catch them and have a boat to transport them elsewhere.
Those interested need to submit a request and pay a fee of 16 euros (about 400,000 VND). Once approved, they will have 15 days to capture and take the goats away.
According to Sky News, many people have sent their requests from as far away as Tuscany – central Italy or Lombardy – northern Italy.
A farmer on Vulcano - a nearby island - has expressed interest in some goats for his cheese production operation.
Some goats will be kept on the island for tourism purposes as these charismatic creatures will pose for photos with visitors.
(According to 24h)
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