Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book City Goats: The Goat Justice League’s Guide to Backyard Goat Keeping by Jennie Grant. Grant has been called the “godmother of goat lovers” by TIME magazine and was the subject of a Seattle Weekly cover story. In the chapter excerpted below, Grant tells the story of her effort to change the backyard goat laws in Seattle.
Harley Soltes
Sadly, a little girl a quarter-mile from our home came down with a mysterious illness that turned into another illness that was life-threatening. Preliminary tests indicated she might have Q fever, a disease carried by goats … With their daughter deathly ill of an unexplained disease, [the parents] began to tell people that my goats were spreading a life-threatening disease. I could understand their anxiety, but given that the girl had never been to my home, let alone touched my goats, it seemed unlikely that Snowflake and Brownie had anything to do with her sickness. I invited the health department’s veterinary epidemiologist to come and see the goats and where they were kept. She felt that the... Read more
