Four adorable goats playing on a trampoline. At Google HQ, they have goats instead of lawnmowers! This story is nuts…

Four adorable goats playing on a trampoline. At Google HQ, they have goats instead of lawnmowers! This story is nuts…

It’s perhaps simultaneously the cutest and the funniest way to save the environment yet: Use goats instead of lawnmowers. It’s not a joke, but rather a way that Google is trying to be more environmentally conscious. Every so often Google rents around 200 goats from a company called California Grazing for a week to “cut” their grass. Oh, and they also get the added benefit of free fertilizer with them there too, but I won’t go into detail about that!

These goats supposedly cost about the same as it would to use lawn mowers, but is it right for Google to use animals this way? PETA, the most outspoken organization on animal cruelty, is okay with the idea, but have concerns about how the goats are treated when not just “doing what goats do.”

In a statement by PETA on Google’s use of goats: “PETA has found over and over that whenever animals are used by a business to make money, corners are cut and animals often suffer as a result.” Their concerns are over things such as their veterinary care, housing, and shelter from the sun and rain.

Google, in turn, stated “[we take] the wellness of our employees very seriously… The lawn-mowing goats are not, of course, full-time Google employees – but we would certainly respond directly to any concerns about their treatment.”

(Source)