Jason Jimenez and Jess Kurtz load the Belmont goats from SE Belmont and 11th for transport to SE Foster and 91st, Oct 5, 2014. A group of renown goats in Portland were temporarily set free in what appeared to be an act of protest against a planned clearing of a nearby encampment of those experiencing homelessness. 

PORTLAND — A herd of city goats well-known in Portland, Oregon, were temporarily set free Tuesday, Feb. 7, in what appeared to be an act of protest against a planned sweep of a nearby homeless encampment.

The fence of the goats’ enclosure in north Portland was cut, allowing them to get out. The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that the co-owner of the Belmont Goats nonprofit, Robin Casey, found a note rolled up inside the fence.

“In what reality is the comfort of five goats valued over the shelter of more than fifteen people,” the news outlet reported the letter as saying. “So, it’s time for the Belmont Goats to enjoy a little walk in the park.” It was signed by “some anarchists.”

Casey said all the escaped goats have been retrieved and appear to be healthy.

The incident came amid tensions in the neighborhood over city plans to build a tiny home village.

Portland officials announced last year that they had selected the site where the goats currently live, on city-owned land, for tiny home village and affordable housing projects. They agreed to relocate the goats to another area nearby. But the spot where the goats are supposed to be relocated to is home to an encampment where more than a dozen people live.

The city has been providing outreach to the encampment residents for about six months, at least twice a month, said Cody Bowman, spokesperson for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. The residents were offered shelter beds, free rides to a shelter and storage for their belongings, among other services, he said.

“This long-term cleanup effort is to allow for the development of a new safe rest village location,” The Oregonian reported Bowman as saying. “The senseless incident that occurred last night caused damage to private property and posed an immediate threat to the goats who were released. City staff has been in contact with Belmont Goats since early this morning to help the staff bring the goats back to safety.”

The note left in the fence claimed that those living in the encampment were just told to call 211, the human services hotline, for information about shelter resources. Over the past few years, many have reported that calling 211 often fails as a connection to shelter or other resources, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Belmont Goats co-owner Casey said the nonprofit has a good relationship with the people living in the encampment.

“They are our eyes and ears. I’ve had one of the campers call and say they’ve noticed one of our goats was limping. And last summer, there was a fire, and the fire department wasn’t able to respond quickly. But one of the campers had a fire extinguisher and put our fire out,” the news outlet reported Casey as saying.

“We don’t want anybody swept, but we don’t have much control over it,” Casey said. “We want humanity, and we want the people taken care of, and we want people to have some place to go, and we want to advocate for them. We are on their side.”

While there were initial media reports that a goat died after being set free, Casey said the death was not related. An older goat died Feb. 7 after a long illness, nearly a day before the fence-cutting, Casey said.

Texas man jailed in Dallas monkey case says he’d do it again

DALLAS — A 24-year-old man now linked to an unusual string of crimes that kept the Dallas Zoo on the lookout for missing animals told police that after he swiped two monkeys from their enclosure, he took them onto the city’s light rail system to make his getaway, court records show.

Davion Irvin also said he loves animals and that if he’s released from jail, he would steal more, the documents said.

Irvin, who remained jailed Tuesday, Feb. 7, on $25,000 bond, was arrested last week after asking questions at a downtown Dallas aquarium about animals there. He is charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of burglary. An attorney listed for Irvin in court records did not respond to a request for comment.

Irvin told police that on the night of Jan. 29, he waited until dark, jumped a fence to get onto zoo grounds, cut the metal mesh of an enclosure and took the two emperor tamarin monkeys, according to arrest warrant affidavits. He then got on the city’s light rail before walking to the vacant home where he said he kept his animals.

Acting on a tip from the public, police found the monkeys named Bella and Finn on Jan. 31, the day after they were discovered missing, at the empty home in Lancaster, a Dallas suburb about 15 miles south of the zoo. Multiple cats and pigeons were also in the home, in addition to dead feeder fish and fish food that had disappeared from a staff-only area of the zoo earlier in January but wasn’t reported stolen at the time, affidavits said.

Irvin has been charged in two of the odd events over a span of several weeks at the zoo and is linked to another, police said. In the taking of the monkeys, Irvin faces one count of burglary and six counts of animal cruelty — three for each monkey. He also faces a burglary charge in relation to the escape of a clouded leopard named Nova, who was discovered missing Jan. 13. A cut was found in her enclosure, and the zoo closed as a search was launched. She was found later that day near her habitat.

Irvin told investigators that he’d wanted to take Nova but that he was only able to pet her before she got on top of her enclosure, an affidavit said.

Police said they’ve linked Irvin to the cutting of an enclosure for langur monkeys, discovered after Nova went missing, but he hasn’t been charged in that. None of the langur monkeys escaped.