A MAN’S BEST FRIEND IS A GOAT

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London are now saying that goats are much smarter than previously thought and interact with people in a similar way to pets. Their latest experiment, documented in the journal Biological Letters, showed that goats will gaze at humans in the same way as dogs do when asking for a treat that is out of reach. The team has also demonstrated that goats can work out how to break into a sealed box using levers, a task used to gauge intelligence in apes. They can even remember the skill four years later without prompting. Study co-author Dr. Alan McElligott from Queen Mary’s Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology said, “We know that in some areas goats are as intelligent as dogs, but there has been a lot more work done on dog behavior and we are really just scratching the surface with goats.”
* Plus, you can’t get cheese from a dog.
* And a lot of people use goats as lawnmowers. When dogs eat grass, they barf.
* How are goats at playing Frisbee?
* I’m a sports fan. To me “goat” stands for Greatest of All Time.
* Goats are much smarter than previously thought? That sounds impressive until you remember how dumb we thought they were.
* Notice how the study spans 4 years? Now, that’s how you milk the grant money.
* I will give the goats a leg up on one thing: I never saw them sniffing each others’ butts.
* This means goats could replace dogs. It’s nature’s version of outsourcing.