Wednesday January 21st 2026
Wild goats protection is on the border Council agenda
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
D-Day is approaching for a bid to guarantee protection to a wild goat species that has roamed in the Scottish Borders for hundreds of years.
A petition signed by almost 22,000 people has called for the goats in Langholm and the Newcastleton Hills to be bestowed protected status.
It follows what has been described by conservationists as an “over-zealous” but legal cull last year by rewilding company Oxygen Conservation.
Environmental campaigner Kenneth Moffatt drew up the petition calling on the Scottish Government to grant protected status to the goats.
That petition reached Parliament’s Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee late last year.
Now the committee has announced that it will sit for its second, and perhaps final, hearing of the petition to grant protected status to the wild goats on Thursday, February 11.
At the first hearing of the petition in Holyrood on September 10 last year, the committee convenor, Jackson Carlaw, criticised what he called the “dead hand” of NatureScot for its lack of proactive involvement in the issue.
Oxygen Conservation has defended the controversial cull on Langholm Moor, stating it was a necessary to allow native woodland and habitat regeneration on their land.
While acknowledging public outcry the company asserts that expert advice supported the cull as essential for achieving long-term environmental benefits and meeting conservation policy objectives.
Oxygen Conservation said a drone survey in October 2023 found there were 20 goats on the estate. A similar survey in January last year found there were then 138.
A spokesperson said: “This is a massive increase in a small amount of time, and we are already seeing the impact of their browsing on the few remaining trees on the estate.
“If we don’t manage numbers now, the growing goat population will have an increasingly negative impact on the environment.”
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