On August 3 in Boise, Idaho, 118 goats escaped from the property whose vegetation they were supposed to be munching. They all managed to wiggle their ways through broken slats in a wooden fence and then wandered into a nearby neighborhood.

Just four days later in New Jersey, 75 goats and sheep broke free from the Hackettstown Livestock Auction House. At its weekly auctions, about 300 goats, sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry are sold for slaughter.

To free the goats and sheep, somebody had pushed open an unsecured gate – and that hero may very well have been a goat named Fred, who escaped from the same auction house a year ago. Since then, locals have occasionally spotted Fred around the town. He sometimes even shows up at the train station to greet commuters.

Fred has also been seen in the company of several deer. “Some people are convinced he might even think he’s a deer himself,” Hackettstown Police spokesman Darren Tynan told the New Jersey Herald.

It was likely no coincidence that there happened to be a Fred sighting near the auction house just a couple hours before the animals escaped.The story of the hooved escape artists in Idaho had a happy ending – they were all rounded up by their owner, We Rent Goats, and returned to the property they were supposed to be clearing. We Rent Goats is a participant in the Animal Welfare Institute’s Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) program. The owners say they treat the goats “like queens” and work hard to keep them happy.

In Hackettstown, however, most of the rogue goats and sheep were rounded up and returned to a holding pen in the auction house. Unlike their Idaho brethren, they won’t spend their lives eating vegetation. Instead, they’ll soon be killed and eaten themselves.

Hackettstown Mayor Maria DiGiovanni told the Post she is usually among the people who cheer when livestock escape their doomed fate. “I kind of like when they break free, but I see both sides. It is a business,” she said.

The good news is that 10 to 20 of the auction house escapees remain at large and are probably hiding out in nearby woods. “None of them are causing a problem at this point, so we’re not actively looking for them, but if a call comes in we’ll take it from there,” Tynan told the New Jersey Herald.

Here’s hoping those escapees manage to find their ways to sanctuaries or homeowners who can keep them as pets. The Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in New York has generously offered to provide these animals with a forever home and is asking anyone who spots one to contact them.