Would bear spray work on a goat?

I can't see why not. There are enough anecdotal stories of bear spray successfully being used on many different animals.

One thing about bear spray...and regardless of who or what you are spraying, you need to be of the sound and very quick mind to instantly deploy it and not freeze when the animal comes charging at you. Also the wind has to be in your favor which in the mountains, can be very unpredictable and can be either blowing toward you and or swirling around you. Once you come to the conclusion that you need to use the spray, you have mere seconds to react before it could be too late. Spray too soon, then you you could end up having a very bad day and the final outcome may not be in your favor...

I carry bear spray and would not hesitate to use it on any animal if I felt my life or another person's life was in danger.

That said, avoid putting yourself in that tight situation and you will have no problems, yet still be able to see and enjoy wildlife in their natural settings. On Saturday we were watching a female black bear with a cub born this year off in the distance. Mama bear knew we were close by but not a threat and other then the occasional sniff in the air, continued to feed away in the meadow totally ignoring us. Had we been ignorant in bear behavior and moved closer, then it could of been a totally different situation and outcome.

LOL.

As a point of reference, as I understand it, all mammals have receptors for capsaicin so it works on all of us.

Wild animals can do a lot of damage. A group of us got chased by a raccoon once. Nobody wanted to beat on it and we weren't in a rush so backing off was easy. It was pretty funny getting chased by an aggressive critter.

I once watched as a squirrel that was assumed to be dead woke up when the hunter picked it up. It started wiggling and ran up his arm. He was thrashing so much, and screaming like a girl, it was hard to tell who was doing what to who. It kind of looked like the squirrel ran around his head a couple of times. Big guy, better than 300 pounds and tall, a combat veteran, stymied by a squirrel. I near about hurt myself laughing. Took a considerable amount of snake-bite-remedy to take the edge off. The boy lost a lot of his enthusiasm for hunting tree rats.

It ends up that I knew this victim a bit, we have hiked around alot of the same trails above Port Angeles - there are places where hikers stop to chat and those where folks rush on by, the Olys seem to be one of those places where you talk and meet people, and I have talked with Bob Boardman a handful of times. I'm very sorry to hear what happened, may he rest in peace. My condolences to his wife, family and friends. He loved the outdoors, very much, and he loved his family as well. He was a good man.

The Seattle Times has a fair account of the attack by the goat, best I've seen so far - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013189753_olympicpark18m.html. It sounds like even a tourniquet would not have made much of a difference. The goat was standing over him and couldn't be waved off for at least 15 minutes - another part of the account says first medical assistance couldn't begin for almost 50 minutes, by which time the victim had lost alot of blood and had no pulse. Its a first fatal attack by any type of animal in the Park, amazing to me given the number of black bears I've seen all over the place. I have always kept my distance from goats even when hiking partners do something insipid like sidle in for a close up picture. They are big, strong wild animals, prone to acting like wild animals. Now at least I'll have a reason to tell them to stop that crap.

Hey Izzy,Full-Grown Mountain Goats,Often tip the scale over 200lbs.,They are ALL Muscle,Horns,& Hooves,Can stop on a dime,Can Run Uphill at 35 MPH,&They can Jump Higher than 10',& Leap Even Further from a standstill,& Can Eat anything & Still survive, very well!They Live Higher up than,Most Birds do!They are Very Wild Animals!

Wow, that's sad & scary at the same time. I guess the only way he could have been saved with the TQ would have been if he'd have applied it himself, no mean feat with an angry goat hovering over you.

What happens is Mountain Goats in particular are attracted to the salt content in urine and often follow hikers for that reason.

Even a barnyard billy is something to respect.

"Violent behavior

Mountain Goats have an aggressive social structure. The goats often push and shove each other –sometimes falling off cliffs. Adults will sometimes lift smaller goats and toss them, although the victims usually manage to catch themselves.



In Alberta, biologists Francois Fournier and Marco Festa-Bianchet found that Mountain Goats have an average of 3-4 conflicts per goat, per hour, throughout the entire year –and 5 or 6 conflicts per hour are quite common! Bighorn Sheep, on the other hand, only experience conflict once every 2-3 hours during the mating season –despite their reputation for continually butting-heads.



Mountain goats do not butt heads. Instead they poke each other in the hindquarters or on the backside. As a result of this constant fighting, male mountain goats have developed an extra-thick layer of skin to protect their behinds.



Biologists think that this aggressive behavior among mountain goats encourages the herds to disperse. Small bands of half-a-dozen animals have a better chance of survival in harsh conditions where food is scarce."

http://www.angelfire.com/punk2/walktheplank/mountgoats.html

That's an XLNT photo of an Average sized Mountain Goat!Too bad we can't see his Hooves,because aside from using their Horns,They often use their Hooves to clear obstacles out of the way,or to actually Blaze a Trail in Rock formations!I've seen them standing on Ledges no bigger than 6"x6" on Sheer Vertical Faces,1000's of Feet Up!They Deserve plenty of Respect,Wherever You may find them!

It has to be pointed out that there are wounds to limbs that are not easy to put a tourniquet on. A major vessel that opened up too close to the trunk, or retract into the trunk, so that there is no way to get a tourniquet on ahead of it to stop the bleeding is problematic. Medics will, as a matter of course, cut their way through skin and muscle, hopefully in such a way as to limit permanent damage, to get to the bleeding vessel and tie it off.

In some situations using pressure points can be faster and more immediately effective than trying to use a tourniquet. In such cases it is necessary to have someone maintain pressure on the blood vessel until a cut-down can be preformed. Sometimes the victim and person maintaining pressure are best transported as a unit.

If he caught a horn in the groin the tear may have been too deep to get to by any conventional means outside a trauma center and vascular surgery. Such torn vessels tend to be large and under a lot of pressure. To the point that a tear can mean the person bleeds out in a matter of a very few minutes. Sever the femoral artery and you can bleed out in less than a minute.

Everyone can't be saved.