San Clemente Island

The Navy had run the island since 1934 and permitted hunting and trapping until 1972. After the survey, removal began in earnest, and by 1980 roughly 4,000 goats remained.

What followed decided the breed's fate. The Navy proposed shooting the remaining goats from helicopters. The animal welfare group Fund for Animals blocked it in court, and under the ruling trappers took roughly 3,000 goats off the island alive. Most were placed on condition that the new owners would not breed them, which is close to the opposite of what a rare breed needs. Others went straight off the barges to farms.

The removals did not end in rescue for the animals left behind. The last goat on San Clemente Island was killed in April 1991. Every living San Clemente Island goat descends from the ones that came off by barge.

They are small and fine-boned, described by The Livestock Conservancy as uncommonly deer-like. Bucks stand 25 to 27 inches, does 23 to 24, and adult weights run 35 to 130 pounds across the breed.

The usual color is red or tan with black markings. Head profiles vary from dished to straight, the ears are medium length and may be crimped or erect, and both sexes carry horns: a buck's typically twist outward, a doe's vary in length and shape.

The Conservancy's word for the temperament is alert, which fits an animal shaped by a century of feral life. They are hardy, and the does are excellent mothers.

One practical point in their favor: the bucks do not carry the scent-gland smell that most buck goats do.

Meat, homestead milking, a little cashmere, and clearing brush. The milk suits cheese and yogurt, and the goats are good at eating what you want gone.

Less than most breeds. A dry island with no help selected out the animals that needed any, and what is left is hardy and self-sufficient on rough browse.

What the breed needs is bookkeeping. In a critically endangered population, which animals breed, and to whom, matters more than it does in any commercial herd.

A 2007 DNA study by The Livestock Conservancy and the University of Cordoba confirmed the San Clemente Island goat is genetically distinct and unrelated to other breeds.

The numbers stay small. The breeders association puts the historic island population near 20,000; the global population was about 1,400 in 2020, and the association counts about 1,700 animals across 27 US states and 3 Canadian provinces today. The breed is listed as Critical on the Conservation Priority List.

Registration means the San Clemente Island Goat Breeders Association, a nonprofit that keeps the breed's herdbook and pedigree records to manage genetic diversity. Ask for the registration and the animal's lineage before you bid.

Ask the seller how the animals relate to the rest of the herd and what unrelated lines are within reach. Most of the goats taken off the island were placed under no-breeding conditions, so today's population came through a narrow gate and relatedness is the standing question.

Expect a smaller animal and a smaller carcass than any commercial meat breed: adults can run as light as 35 pounds. With a Critical-listed breed you are buying genetics as much as livestock, and breeding responsibly is part of the point.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.