For almost a century, cartoons have depicted goats as animals that will eat anything. In Walt Disney’s 1928 animated short “Steamboat Willie,” for example, a goat eats Minnie Mouse’s guitar and sheet music. In Sony Pictures Animation’s 2026 full-length movie “GOAT,” the protagonist, a pygmy goat named Will Harris, eats an unopened tin can of nuts.
Goats cannot, in fact, eat just anything, but as foragers that prefer a varied diet of brush over pastures, they’re great for controlling invasive plant species. That’s why St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Romeo, Michigan, hired a herd of goats to munch on poison ivy, honeysuckle, shrubs, vines, thorns and other plants that have colonized its nearly 11-acre property.
The sustainable land clearing project is a collaboration between St. Paul’s, Green Space Romeo, Lake St. Clair Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, and Michigoat, a Southeast Michigan-based business that rents goats. The long-term goal is to repurpose the underused property into a community green space. To read more click here
