I live in an area that has taken that stupidity and multiplied it. I forget the exact order of things, but they intentionally introduced a foreign species to this area that was thought to be beneficial. It quickly over ran the place, so they introduced another foreign species to deal with the first one, since it had no natural predators. Then the predator started going berserk and they had to introduce something else.
This happened a couple more times until they started bringing fishers in. Those are miserable bastards. They got so bad that the last thing they brought in was cougars! So now we have cougars.
Not sure when it all stopped, but what a gong show. This is the kind of shit they're trying to avoid. Not doing anything after the species was introduced would have lead to an infestation that would have destroyed the vegetation, resulting in deaths all the way up the food chain. Our lakes have no where near the biodiversity they had before zebra mussels invaded.
So, yeah, sad about one goat... but that goat being removed by any means could have a major positive impact on the local environment. If killing it were the only option it would still be the right thing to do, for the sake of the native species.
That all said, though, it sounds as if the locals had formed a bond with it. Its easy to be pragmatic with no emotions invested. So condolences are appropriate.
I can't help but wonder... and I'm probably going way too deep with this... but given how nicely this serves as an example in a debate around greater good vs individual rights, I'm thinking that this disagreement makes sense, given the ideological differences of the people involved.
