Hunters Set to Shoot Goats on San Clemente Island

Professional hunters hired by the Navy will begin shooting wild goats on San Clemente Island on March 7 unless orders to the contrary are received within a few days from the Chief of Naval Operations.

Ken Mitchell, spokesman for the Navy, said Friday that so far “there is nothing to prevent us” from going ahead with the shooting program, which had been planned for early in January. It was delayed by Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger at the urging of an animal rights group, Fund for Animals, which asked for a chance to capture as many of the animals as possible and bring them to the mainland to be offered for adoption.

627 Captured

The group was given until March 4 to round up the goats, and by late Friday, 627 had been captured, according to Paula Van Orden, Fund for Animals spokeswoman. The total population on the island has been estimated at 1,200 to 1,500.

Earlier this month, more than 400 were brought by barge to the Naval Air Station docks at Coronado and transported to several sanctuaries in Southern California where numbers of them have been adopted.

Van Orden said another batch arrived Friday morning.

“There were 173 when they were loaded at the island, and 174 when they got to the mainland,” she said. “Obviously, one of them had been with kid when captured.”

The rapid breeding habits of the goats, along with their voraciousness, has prompted the Navy to try to wipe them out for several years, on the claim that they are destroying the habitats of several plants and animals that appear on the federal endangered species list and therefore are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1972.