Walking with goats in Philly to start the new year off right

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Rather than attending the Mummers Parade downtown, or nursing a hangover in bed, a few hundred people headed to Wissahickon Valley Park on New Year’s Day to hang out with goats.

The Philly Goat Project’s annual, hourlong walk brought 13 goats for an energetic hike along the trail on Forbidden Drive, overlooking Wissahickon Creek.

One of them was Bobito, a black and brown Nigerian goat with a white stripe. He was alternately pulling and being pulled by Goat Project volunteer Lisa Cooper and a few others.

“He loves to have fun and play with the other goats, and play with anyone that comes that will play with him,” she said, as Bobito steadily strode ahead.

Midway through the walk, a goat named Joy bleated plaintively a few times — not out of concern about the crowd of people around her, but because she’d momentarily lost sight of another goat.

“She’s trying to catch up to her sister, because they’re herd animals, and if she can’t see somebody, she gets anxious,” said Jay Tinkelman, another Philly Goat Project volunteer. “But they’re all really well-trained and gentle.”

Every 20 minutes, project staff with walkie-talkies paused the walk, and directed people who were holding the goats’ ropes to take a break and let another set of walkers grab the reins.

“If you haven’t had a turn with the goat of your dreams, go up to a goat and ask them to have a turn,” a staffer urged through a bullhorn.

Many of the participants said they’d heard about the event on social media and were intrigued by the idea of starting the year with a healthy, outdoor walk amid beautiful wooded scenery.

Lisa Leonard of Flourtown said she discovered the walk a year ago and returned for a second go-round Wednesday.

“I arrived and I saw all these people who were smiling, and the goats, and it was just like, this is how I want to spend New Year’s Day every day from now on,” she said. “It just felt like the greatest way to sort of start a new year, a clean slate, in nature.”

“We were looking on Facebook for an event to do today, and we love hiking and the Wissahickon, so we said, let’s go. Let’s go see the goats,” said SarahBeth Rennie of Northeast Philly, who was there with her partner and daughter. “We did goat yoga before, so I was like, let’s just go be one with the goats in nature.”

The event is one of many organized by the nonprofit Philly Goat Project, which also offers school and library visits, bereavement and therapy services, training for counselors, gardening programs, events at Awbury Arboretum and community walks.

Executive Director Karen Krivit said the group started the New Year’s Day walk about four years as a “fun idea,” only to see it explode in popularity over the last two years. The January 2024 walk drew about 400 people, and she said the number this year appeared to be in the same ballpark.

“People are off from work, stores are closed, and we’re sort of the poster child for being outdoors in nature. Look at all the people here,” she said, watching as green-shirted volunteers held back traffic so walkers and goats could cross a road. “We have people who are walking with children, bikes, even walkers. And we have slow, medium and fast goats. It’s really been lovely.”

She said people relate to the goats and relish the opportunity to participate in concretely sustainable work done by the group, such as the upcoming Treecycling events where the goats help dispose of old Christmas trees.

“We can walk the walk and talk the talk about sustainability, which is really nice,” she said. “I think that’s why a lot of people want to partner with us.”