PHOENIX β The baby pygmy goat that vanished from the Arizona State Fair has been located and is safe and sound, bringing relief to legions of social media followers who helped make the missing animal one of the most talked about topics on the Internet on Thursday.
Fair livestock director Karen Searle says a man walking his dog along a canal in Phoenix found GusGus and took him to a pet store, where an attentive worker called the State Fair. Searle says GusGus is hungry and tired, but not injured. He is being reunited with his mother.
Someone took tiny GusGus from a pen Wednesday evening. The alleged kidnapping sparked disbelief from people on social media as well as the hashtag, #FindGusGus.
The miniature goat weighs less than 5 pounds and is still nursing, making it difficult to survive for long without his mother. The images of the mother crying for her missing kid helped bring even more attention to the story.
GusGus disappeared Wednesday sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., and security was immediately notified, petting zoo manager Emilie Owen said. The miniature goat is so small that it can easily fit under a jacket or in a purse.
"In over 30 years that we've been doing this, I have never had anything like this happen," Owen said. "It's very heartbreaking for us and mama. She wants her baby back."
Owen said GusGus' mother, Custard, is aware that he is gone.
"She's looking in all the pens. She's looking at us and she cries," Owen said.
Searle said there are employees in the petting zoo at all times. So, someone would have noticed if GusGus had tried to run off. Because he is tame and accustomed to humans, he would not have cried out if someone picked him up.
"This was definitely an intentional theft. There's no way it was an accident," Searle said.
According to Owen, the baby goat needs his mother's milk to survive. GusGus was born last month and hasn't had all his shots.
The makeshift barn that houses the petting zoo has no surveillance cameras. But the fair has received calls from potential witnesses and are passing credible tips to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Searle said. They just want GusGus back and are not interested in prosecution, she added.
GusGus and Custard are part of a menagerie of animals provided by the Oregon-based Great American Animal Entertainment Company, which brings petting zoos to events around the country. Owen said it saddens her that now they have to change security around the petting zoo.
"Probably we'll have someone stationed at the exit gate from now on, checking people to make sure nobody is leaving that isn't supposed to be," Owen said.
