Goats chase Ontario runner, prompting pun-filled plea from police

A runner in eastern Ontario had to take “hoofing it” to the next level over the Labour Day long weekend after being chased by two goats—an incident that has gained traction online by prompting a pun-laced plea from police for the animals’ owner to come forward.

According to an Ontario Provincial Police post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the runner’s encounter with the goats happened Saturday near the Grenville Park Camping and RV Park in the township of Johnstown, about 90 kilometres south of Ottawa. Other than noting that the animals gave chase to the runner on a county road near the campground, police didn’t share any detailed information about the encounter.

#GrenvilleOPP is looking for assistance with locating the owner of these two “baaaad” boys.
They were located after chasing a jogger on CR 2 @twpec near Grenville Campground… yes, that’s right…
Don’t “goat” me started on the puns, but call #OPP if you know the owner! ^dh pic.twitter.com/Ijdox08VR9

— OPP East Region (@OPP_ER) September 4, 2023

While it would seem the consequences of the encounter weren’t too serious for the runner given the tone of the police’s post, officers weren’t about to let the incident slide. Nor were they about to pass up the chance to slip in some puns in announcing their search for the goats’ owner.

Taking the opportunity by the horns, police posted a photo of the goats in question with the following plea:

Goats are the go-to training partners for this B.C. ultra-triathlete

“#GrenvilleOPP is looking for assistance with locating the owner of these two ‘baaaad’ boys. They were located after chasing a jogger on CR 2 @twpec near Grenville Campground… yes, that’s right… Don’t ‘goat’ me started on the puns, but call #OPP if you know the owner!”

Not to be outdone, commenters tried their best to one-up the police’s punmanship in replies to the original OPP post. “Gotta be kid-ding me,” reads one reply. “Wattle ewe doe?”

“Now this is a very goat tweet,” reads another.

4 times runners encountered unexpected wildlife

Although police haven’t said whether their lighthearted plea was successful in shedding light on who owns the goats, the post at the very least succeeded in serving up some laughs.

“Hope the owner is found,” wrote one appreciative poster. “Thank you for making me laugh. And of course a job well done.”