A message from NAPgA President, Curtis King…

I wanted to take a moment to reflect and share with all of you the positive and productive experience we had in meeting with the Wild Sheep Foundation and a panel of experts August 27th and 28th at the Ramada Inn in Spokane WA. During a two-day workshop meeting we took a fresh look at our Best Management Practices, discussing and dissecting the many issues and questions that come up when talking about Goat Packing inside of and around Bighorn Sheep habitat.

With over two hundred years of combined work experience, our panel of eleven participants brought a plethora of knowledge, experience and skill set to the table. Ranging from a seasoned wildlife veterinarian, wildlife conservationists, wildlife biologists, a Veterinary Medical Officer, a veteran research Professor specializing in bacterial agents in domestic animal reservoirs, to seasoned Goat Packers and a Horseman, and we had all the ingredient’s needed to cook up answers to the question:

“How can we safely recreate with our pack goats in and around Bighorn Sheep habitat, and have ‘no contact’ with wild sheep?”

In attendance were the following panel of experts:
1. NAPgA treasure, Larry Robinson
2. NAPgA member, Nancy Clough
3. NAPgA member, Taffy Mercer
4. NAPgA President, Curtis King
5. Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation Executive Director, Steve Kilpatrick
6. Wildlife Biologist, Wildlife consultant, and WSF Professional Resource Advisory Board Member, Tim Schommer
7. Wild Sheep Foundation Director of Conservation, Kevin Hurley
8. ARS, ADRU, Dr. Maggie Highland, Veterinary Medical Officer
9. WSU research Professor, Tom Besser
10. Nevada Department of Wildlife Veterinarian, Dr. Peregrine Wolff
11. Nevada Department of Wildlife Biologist, Mike Cox

The meeting started with a presentation from NAPgA president Curtis King, who shared our vision of “Bullet Proof Goat Packing” through education and awareness, and why a conservation-minded approach to goat packing is paramount. We shared our vision and mission statements along with our strong desire to collaborate with the Wild Sheep Foundation and other wildlife organizations to find common-ground answers focused on sensible, intelligent solutions to safe goat packing. The presentation gave the panel a better understanding of just how small NAPgA’s membership is and a realistic overview of how small the entire goat packing community really is. Less than 1/3 of the packgoat community uses packgoats in Bighorn Sheep habitat.

Kevin Hurley, the vice-President of Conservation & Operations for the Wild Sheep Foundation, gave an overall presentation about the Foundation to include the foundation’s history, past and current wild sheep numbers and their habitat’s, along with WSF’s mission statement and the direction they are headed in putting and keeping wild Sheep on the mountain.

The meeting followed with a presentation from Dr. Tom Besser, Professor at Washington State University and WSU Rocky Crate Chair. Dr. Besser gave an in-depth presentation and overview of the great strides and findings that have been made in M-ovi disease research as it relates to domestic sheep and goats.

Dr. Maggie Highland, Veterinary Medical Officer -Researcher ARS, ADRU, Pullman WA, presented on her research involving pathogen surveillance in pack goats and the overwhelming results of that study showing that M-ovi typically is not present in our pack goats. Dr. Highland also briefly discussed that M-ovi is also being found in samples taken from Dall sheep in Alaska, as well as Bison, Elk, and Whitetail deer in the lower 48.

The remainder of the day was spent breaking down our Best Management Practices and taking an in-depth look at what is really needed in them and what is not. This round table discussion of questions and answers set the stage for Day Two, which involved breaking down some of the language and adding emphasis on the words “No Contact” and “Control”.

We ended the first day with a catered dinner brought to our meeting room and some adult beverages. Having the opportunity to talk amongst ourselves and share some of our thoughts and ideas left all of us with a much better understanding of each other’s background and organizations. We enjoyed the great dinner while watching numerous goat packing videos on the large screen. A very special thank you to Marc Warnke with Packgoats.com for filming and editing some of the most thrilling footage out there of hunting with packgoats and watching them work after a successful hunt.

We started Day Two hitting the chalk board and putting pencil to paper. By the end of mid-morning we had our BMP’s whittled down from eleven to five. We will continue to fine-tune these and the end results will be reposted on our NAPgA website as soon as possible. Some of the main points that came up during this workshop meeting included, “What does a veterinarian checkup really look like?” and, “What can we do to assist the Shoshone National Forest with the pending permit system?”

By doing some of this work now, we can save a lot of headaches, research work, and concerns about what should be involved in a veterinarian inspection of a pack goat prior to being issued a permit into an area where Bighorn Sheep are present. Dr. Peri Wolff was very instrumental and helpful in this area of discussion. We penciled out a list of seven items that should be included in a veterinarian check list. This is a living document and can be added and deleted as needed. We want to be able to present a checklist to give vets a guide of what to look for verses just showing up to your property, looking over the fence at your boys, and saying, “Yep, they look good and healthy. Have a great trip!” Signs your vet- inspection document and leaves.

These included:
1. Physical exam
2. PRT (pulse, respiration, temperature)
3. Check the mouth for sores or lesions
4. Check for symptoms of ORF
5. Check for symptoms of pink eye
6. Check for symptoms of CL
7. Check feet between hooves for infection

We rounded out the day with some homework assignments to complete a template of something we can give to the Forest Service when we meet with them and the planning committee team that will be writing policy for what will be involved in the permit process. NAPgA has been invited to be involved in the design of the permit process and we look forward to being involved with this. Dr. Peri Wolf and Professor T. Besser volunteered to work together on designing a veterinarian checklist that we can use as a draft when we meet with the Shoshone early next year 2019. We are also contacting our local Veterinarians for input on what this might look like.

Other items of discussion involved education and awareness and how NAPgA can use social media and other educational web sites such as Packgoats.com to reach not hundreds but thousands of potential pack goat users, current pack goat users and members of the hunting community. Some discussion was presented of having NAPgA president Curtis King possibly doing a coffee table training video interview with Marc Warnke (Packgoats.com) discussing our BMP’s and what Bullet Proof goat packing really looks like. This type of presentation on education and awareness will spread like wildfire and that folks is what we want. I was very pleased with the outcome of this workshop-meeting and I felt that we not only made great progress but we planted some good seeds and established a positive working relationship with the agencies and organizations that attended. We all have a strong passion for wildlife.

We still have lots of work to do and I personally want to thank all of those that attended and worked with us on this project. We look forward to working with these organizations/agencies and the Shoshone National Forest early next year in the permit planning process.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.
“Long Live The Pack Goat”
Curtis King
President, North American Packgoat Association

It’s that time of year for the celebrated annual NAPgA Calendar photo contest! Look through this past year’s photos and pick out your five best. Your goat could be famous in 2019! 

Photo submissions will be taken through September 30th. These are the rules:

-Participants must be current NAPgA members

-Participants must put their name in their photo’s description field.

-Each participant may submit up to five photos.

-To qualify for a calendar page, photos MUST be in landscape orientation and high resolution. High resolution means at least 2500 x 1900 pixels.
If these qualifications are not met, your photo cannot be used for the calendar no matter how many votes it receives! 

Instructions on how to access the Flickr account and upload your photos was emailed to all NAPgA members. If you did not receive this email, please use the contact form to get in touch with us and we’ll make sure you get that information.

Now let’s see those awesome packgoat photos!

Published in Ellensburg Daily Record
Story by SHANAI BEMIS
Photos: Brian Myrick / Daily Record

Hikers venturing out in the Kittitas Valley might encounter familiar landscape — canyons, hills, sagebrush and shrub steppe.

They might also find something unexpected: five goats with pack saddles following docilely behind Dick Carkner.

Stitches, Inky, Lightning, Rambo and Thor are pack goats raised by Carkner to help carry gear during hiking trips. They follow behind Carkner, over trails and across country, hopping over gullies and displaying the athleticism their species is known for.

Carkner raised all five by hand, bottle-feeding them as kids, which is an important step in raising a pack goat, he said.

“It doesn’t take much training, the main thing is to have them properly socialized,” he said. “It’d be hard to find adult goats that have what you need.”

A good pack goat is well socialized and comfortable around people, which allows a pack goat handler to strap the saddles on to them without much fuss.

“You’re their mother, parent, dad, whatever,” he said.

Goats are naturally inclined to herd and will stay grouped together and follow their handler by instinct. Well socialized goats will be comfortable around humans. It can be a bit of a challenge when Carkner runs into other people out on the trail, though.

“I’ll stop and get talking to some people and then we go to move on, I look back and I’ve lost a goat,” he said, laughing.

Carkner began raising and working with pack goats a decade ago after being introduced the practice by his son. Since then, he’s had a number of goats. Inky, Lightning, Rambo and Thor are his newest group. The four are 3 years old, born in the same year and have just reached their prime.

Stitches is an older goat, 10 years old, and is the boss of the group.

“It’s a very distinct pecking order,” Carkner said, with the hierarchy being decided between the goats themselves.
When out hiking, the goats will typically follow in the same order every time, with the boss goat in front and the rest falling into their spots behind.

Besides their natural inclination to stay grouped together and follow their handler, goats are well suited as pack animals due to their natural athleticism.

“They can go places that wouldn’t be safe for a horse,” Carkner said.

Goats are also similar to deer and can graze on more plants than a horse could and don’t require as much water. Each adult goat can carry up to 25 percent of its body weight, which usually is around 50 pounds. However, Carkner usually keeps the loads to about 30 pounds.

“We don’t want to push it,” he said.

The loads are put into specially designed saddle bags that attach to goat-specific saddles that are strapped into place on the goat’s back. They are designed to stay in place when going over steep terrain.

The saddles and bags can be found online for purchase through a number of pack goat websites. The practice, while not widely-known, has been around for a number of years and has a strong community.

The North American Pack Goat Association was founded in 1999 and works to spread education about pack goats and keep public land open to pack goat use.

A pack goat will typical cost about $200 to purchase from a breeder, Carkner said. In a year, they will typically go through anywhere from $500 to $700 worth of feed and the saddles and gear can cost several hundred dollars as well.

The investment is worth it though, as each goat can continue to hike into their teens, as evidenced by Stitches, who is still going strong at 10 years old.

Goats, like dogs, wiggle their tails when they’re happy, Carkner said, and he sees it often when he’s out on the trail with his goats.

“This is what they like to do,” he said.