SASKATOON — Turns out the goat who wouldn't leave a Tim Hortons in Saskatchewan got a bum rap.
The goat was one of three taking part in the University of Saskatchewan rodeo team's annual event just north of Saskatoon on the weekend.
Katie Dutchak, co-founder of the team, says it's believed the goat — which came from Alberta — was kidnapped and let loose in the coffee shop's parking lot.
Dutchak says goats are companion animals and don't wander off by themselves and the Timmy's is about a 10-minute car ride south of the corral grounds where the rodeo was held.
She says goats are known to chew anything, but there was no evidence left to show that Goliath did that.
Team members are thankful he is back safe and sound, but Dutchak says tampering with animals or using them in a joke is something they don't want to promote.
"We can't see any contestants doing anything like this. Everyone is very respectful of the stock," she said Tuesday. "We all take very good care of the stock. These animals are athletes to us ... so we're pretty certain it wasn't anyone who was competing."
She said contestants in the rodeo have been told if they did something like this they could be suspended from competing for the rest of the year.
"If it was a spectator or somebody just at the cabaret, we would press charges if we knew who it was, but unfortunately there is no way to track who it was," Dutchak said.
"We have quite a bunch of stock out there. Everyone brings their horses in from across Canada. These animals are important to us. They are special to us. They cost a lot of money. It's a humane thing.
"We definitely don't like it when people tamper with our stock or play jokes with our stock. We definitely take that very seriously."
Staff at the Tim Hortons in Martensville near Saskatoon called the RCMP early Sunday after unsuccessfully trying to get the animal out of the shop.
Two officers, believing the animal was just cold, took him into their police cruiser, but he kicked up a fuss, so they decided to try to find where he came from.
But despite going to every farmhouse in the area, they were unable to locate his home and took the goat to an animal hospital instead.
The goat had an ear tag, so they were able to trace it back to Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alta.
