Watch footage of slippery Hartlepool goats in their new home

Two stray goats who gave emergency services the slip for four days have finally found a permanent new home.
The Hartlepool Two pose for a reader picture during their four-day tour of the town and East Durham.The Hartlepool Two pose for a reader picture during their four-day tour of the town and East Durham.
The Hartlepool Two pose for a reader picture during their four-day tour of the town and East Durham.

The pair - nicknamed the Hartlepool Two - made national headlines after we told how they had resisted all attempts to capture them after they were spotted wandering around the town and East Durham in October last year.

After various sightings on streets, coastal paths and cliffs in the Central Estate, Headland, Blackhall and Crimdon areas, they were eventually cornered in an alleyway near St Cuthbert's Street, on the Headland, thanks to a major operation involving police, RSPCA officers and council wardens.

The Hartlepool Two pose for a reader picture during their four-day tour of the town and East Durham.The Hartlepool Two pose for a reader picture during their four-day tour of the town and East Durham.
The Hartlepool Two pose for a reader picture during their four-day tour of the town and East Durham.
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Since then the pair have been in temporary accommodation - where they have shown a "strong dedication" to escaping - while the animal welfare charity searched for a permanent home for them.

Now an enclosure has been specially adapted at RSPCA Southridge Animal Centre, in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, with the Hartlepool Two moving there earlier this week.

RSPCA chief inspector Mark Gent said: “We are very grateful to RSPCA Southridge who have stepped in to offer a home to these goats.

“We have been trying to find a permanent home for them since we finally captured them, after four days of trying, in October last year but there was virtually no one with the desire, expertise and facilities to take them on.

The pair enjoying life in their new enclosure.The pair enjoying life in their new enclosure.
The pair enjoying life in their new enclosure.
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“They’ve been at a private boarding establishment where staff have been doing a lot of work to try to bring them around but they are still extremely difficult to manage.

“They are big animals with large horns who run at people and have shown a strong dedication to escaping where they’re housed.

“Southridge do have experience of dealing with unhandled goats like these and have committed to looking after them.”

Mystery still surrounds where the goats were kept before their four-day tour.

The story nearly had a cliff hanger ending.The story nearly had a cliff hanger ending.
The story nearly had a cliff hanger ending.
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Chief Inspector Gent said: “There is no doubt in my mind that these goats have been kept somewhere where they have had little human contact all of their lives before being either dumped or allowed to stray.

“This reckless and irresponsible act could have caused the goats injury or death, and they themselves posed a real and significant risk to the public.

“Whilst I am very happy to say there is a happy ending for these goats, this is yet another example of an irresponsible owner abandoning their animals for charities and public services to deal with and this has come at a great financial cost to the RSPCA.”