Fayetteville police: No charges after video shows person puncturing drink on goat's horn

Fayetteville police are not pursuing criminal charges after a video surfaced online showing a person drinking a canned beverage after puncturing it on a goat’s horn.

In an emailed statement, Sgt. Craig Stout, a spokesman for Fayetteville police, said the department’s criminal investigative division looked into the video, “but the facts of the case did not meet the threshold of animal cruelty.”

A Facebook page for Goats of Anarchy — a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing baby goats with special needs — shared a video that showed a person smash a can on the goat’s horn. The person then drank from the resulting puncture before turning and throwing the can toward a fence. Several onlookers were also shown in the footage.

In one post, the organization said high school students had paid $10 to rent the goat for a night. An accompanying photo showed the goat with a hole in its ear, evidently to mark it as livestock.

Fayetteville police's school resource officer created a report on the incident, but Stout couldn't confirm if the individuals in the video were students in the Fayetteville school district. He said to his knowledge, the video was recorded in Fayetteville.

In an interview, Stout said the goat was unharmed and that the goat’s owner was not in the video. He added that the department has known about the video since Sept. 15.

Stout said the goat’s owner, who raises the animals as livestock, had received threats.

In the email, Stout said all the people involved in the incident are minors, so “there is little more we can disclose about the investigation due to laws regarding the release of juvenile information.”

According to the Goats of Anarchy Facebook page, the organization arranged to take custody of the goat in the video.

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