In Ginostra, a small village of the western side of Stromboli, the coexistence between inhabitants and wild goats has become very complicated. Two thousand animals against just forty residents: the numerical relationship is clear. The goats, descendants of two specimens introduced after the Second World War for breeding purposes, today took over, descending from the slopes of the volcano after the great fire of 2022 and the floods that followed and invading houses, vegetable gardens and beaches.
The tales of the inhabitants seem to have come out of a surreal film: doors left open at night and goats that end up straight on the bed, terraces transformed into pastures, olive groves and devastated capestry plants. Added to this is the concern for health: animals leave excrement on the roofs where rainwater is collected, compromising one of the few water resources available on the island.
The tourists themselves lived close encounters unreasfully, sometimes finding themselves surrounded by goats while walking along the paths overlooking the sea. Situations that can make an impression, but which arise from the simple instinct for the search for food by animals.
Ret up is not the solution
The problem is not limited to material damage. More and more often, animals die in the gardens of homes and it is the citizens themselves who have to deal with removal and burial, with expenses that reach up to one hundred euros for each carcass. Despite a health plan approved in January, which provided for both transfers and a selective reduction, nothing has been done concretely to date.
It is clear that the situation has become emergency, but thinking of solving it with the suppression of animals is unfair. The goats have no faults: they were introduced by man and have simply followed their survival instinct, especially after the fires of 2022 and subsequent floods that reduced natural resources.
We need a serious transfer and responsible management plan, which protects the health of citizens without condemning these innocent animals. It is not right that the goats who pay for a situation that has been created due to man and without real preventive interventions. We must aim to protect both the local population and animals, without reducing it to a choice between “humans or goats”.
Don’t you want to lose our news?
You may also be interested in:
