Petition calls for goat cull end

Supporters want the cull to stop

Opponents of goat culling in Snowdonia have handed in a petition to the National Trust (NT).

The cull, also involving the Snowdonia National Park and Countryside Council for Wales, started started earlier this year because there were too many goats.

Thirty eight goats, out of an estimated 120, were destroyed near Llanberis.

Campaigners claim they do not cause a nuisance and should become a tourist attraction. The National Trust said rising goat numbers were a "hazard".

They were becoming a danger on the roads, and getting into people's gardens and eating crops on farmland Gwyn Angell, National Trust

Gwyn Angell from the NT added: "I can understand people not wanting the goats culled, but the reality is that the national park, the Countryside Council and ourselves, as landowners, looked at every possible option and decided the only way forward was a limited cull."

Rising goat numbers were becoming a hazard in the area, he said.

'Nuisance'

"They were becoming a danger on the roads, and getting into people's gardens and eating crops on farmland," he said.

The cull - by trained marksmen - was carried out in the spring this year but could continue in the future.

Goat supporter Roy Allen, manager of the Freshfields Animal Rescue shop in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, said he had collected "several hundred" names in just a few days on a petition against the cull.

"We've also been handing out cards to holidaymakers to send to the NT to let them know they are against killing the goats."

Mr Allen said visitors to his shop had been "shocked" when told the goats were to be killed because there was too many of them, and that they were causing a nuisance on the roads.

"As far as I can tell, even with local people, not that many have seen the goats, they are quite rare.

"I watch all the nature programmes on television and they go on about saving wildlife, but here they are killing these wild goats," Mr Allen added.