SUDAN'S MARRIED GOAT has, mercifully, gone to the heavenly farmyard, released from its suffering as a beast of burden.
The goat, known as Rose to close friends, became a web phenomenon when it was reported that she had been "married" to Sudanese man Charles Tombe. The wedding was enforced by elders after a drunken Tombe was found taking advantage of the poor animal. He was also made to pay a dowry to Rose's original owner. The elders hoped to shame Tombe, though did not spare Rose's feelings in doing so.
Rose found supporters around the world who, thanks to the internet and particularly this website's "Most E-mailed" function, kept her plight in the public mind for much of her short marriage. Friends would joke about how she had reached the end of her tether, about whether the couple would have any kids, and if they did, whether they would employ a nanny. Others pointed out that the tale got their goat, or wondered whether Tombe had become a "goatee".
Though forced into human institutions, Rose remained a proud goat to the end, doing what all good goats do and eating anything she could find. It was this, ironically, which led to her demise - she choked after eating scraps of a plastic bag.
Joking aside, she is actually survived by a male kid, evidence that despite her troubled past she found personal fulfilment with her own kind. Her human "widower" is perhaps wisely not commenting.
Mitchell Harvey, London
Another victim of the nanny state...
Stephen Bridge, Glossop, Derbyshire
A cheesy story, clearly thought up on the hoof and a distraction from the mountain of more important issues affecting kids today. The BBC should be skinned for acting so beastly. I'll get me goat.
Ewe will be sadly missed..
Did the aticle mean 'scape goat' rather than 'goatee'?
Melissa A, London, UK
Goodbye, Sudan's Rose...
Jamie, Bury St Edmunds
Maybe Rose could live on as the mascot of the no-more-plastic-bags campaign.
Goat to a better place
Adam Spurrier, Birmingham
Gone, but not forgoaten
Tom OConnell, Nowmanton, West Yorkshire
Craig Thomson, Livingston, Scotland
Ewe people have goat to start taking this sort of thing more seriously.
It was very sad to have herd the ram-ifications, butt the motto of the tail is not to get horny with your goat.
Jonathan Hall, Magor, South Wales
This story is udder rubbish.
Hoof-ought this was a good story