Gary The Goat Won’t Be Charged With Vandalism For Eating Flowers

Sydney, Australia – A magistrate has thrown out charges against a goat who allegedly chowed down on officially-planted vegetation last year.

The owner of Gary the goat was facing charges of vandalism after his pet reportedly eat flowers planted at the Museum of Contemporary Art last year. According to ABC News, Jim Dezarnaulds was fined over $400 by police for allowing his animal to graze wherever and whenever it wanted.

In order to draw some attention to what he felt was a ludicrous charge, Dezarnaulds — who also goes by the name Jimbo Bazoobi — posted about the incident on his Facebook page. It didn’t take very long for word to spread about the goat and his recent legal woes.

According to the Mirror, the charges pending against Gary the goat and his owner were tossed out by the magistrate since it’s impossible to prove the vandalism was intentional. As a result, Gary and Jim were cleared on all counts.

The magistrate explained:

“The liability attaches to a person, but Gary’s not a person. In addition, it can’t be proved that Mr; Bazoobi put Gary up to the act of eating flowers. We can’t guess what Gary might have been whispered in his goat ear.”

Not surprisingly, Dezarnaulds was quite happy about the court’s ruling on Wednesday. The comedian said outside of the courthouse:

“”I just think there’s so many laws and regulations in Australia which are just an abuse of common sense. This is actually an abuse of the laws of nature – a goat eating grass. I’m a comedian — I can come up with jokes, but it’s pretty hard to compete with the cops coming out with this stuff.”

What do you think about the charges filed against Gary the goat and his owner? Do you think Jimbo Bazoobi should have to pay for the flowers his animal consumed?

[Image by Jimbo]