 "Photo: Joshua Doby for The Hilltop")
 "Photo: Joshua Doby for The Hilltop")
 "Photo: Joshua Doby for The Hilltop")
A prank on campus took a deadly turn when a goat let loose in Huffman residence hall died the following day, possibly from abuse.
Early Sept. 9, Jeff Jamerson, a security guard for Mars Hill College, received an unusual phone call reporting the loose goat in Huffman. Jamerson answered the call between 2 and 3 a.m. with Dana Holcomb, another security officer on duty that weekday.
At the hall, several students were keeping watch over the animal, which was left skiddish and confused in Huffman lobby. Students on the scene included Clint Lawing, the hall’s resident director; John Lanier, a resident assistant; Seth Clark, a resident of Huffman; and his suitemate, Joshua Doby, a Hilltop photographer.
In an interview with The Hilltop, Lawing said he was the first to discover the goat and become concerned about its welfare.
“I was doing my final Facebook refresh before going to bed, and I saw that the status of
one of my residents was, ‘It’s not every day you see a goat in your dorm,’” Lawing said.
Clark recounted that several residents on the first floor of Huffman told him that someone knocked on their doors about the loose animal. Clark left his room to investigate due to the unusual sounds that he had been hearing.
“I heard a lot of noise, persistent; this guy said they found the goat,” Clark said.
The goat hid behind a trashcan in Huffman lobby and would not come out. Holcomb attempted to lure the goat out of the lobby with potato chips but eventually roped the goat’s neck gently to pick it up.
“It was scared as could be ... pretty hyped up on drugs,” Lanier said.
Holcomb said that the goat probably received some form of marijuana. She has an allergy to the drug and began to break out when she touched the goat, she said.
Holcomb, along with several other witnesses, mentioned that alcohol could have been involved as well.
“Possibly alcohol was involved, because it was bloated,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb kept the goat in her pasture for the remainder of the morning, until the owner was found later that day. Although the goat was returned, it died the next day.
Casey Robinson, an owner of Robinson J F Discount Furniture and Appliance in Mars Hill, strongly expressed his disapproval about the mistreatment of the animal.
“I really ain’t got nothing to say except for someone owes me a goat,” Robinson said.
The goat was actually the pet of Robinson’s daughter, who is 5.
Sgt. Teresa Harwood, of the Mars Hill Police Department, to whom questions were referred to about the incident, said the case was not pursued.
“We did not pursue the case, because the owner did not want to. … It was never really opened,” Harwood said.
When asked about the incident, Robinson indicated he had no knowledge if the person or persons responsible had been found.
“Did they catch ‘em yet?” Robinson asked before taking any questions from The Hilltop.
Robinson, who simply made a statement by phone and declined a formal interview, suggested one penance.
“If they are man enough to admit it, and they want to man up to it, they owe me $200,” he said.
Officials for the college did not respond whether anyone was found responsible for the incident.
Be the first to comment on this article!