Green Goat Landscapers in Gilroy, which uses about 1,000 goats to clear vegetation that can fuel wildfires, said the law could threaten the future of grazing operations that play a role in wildfire prevention across the state.
"We really provide a needed service, and it benefits all of California. Goats go where people and machines can't go, and that really reduces that risk of wildfire," co-owner Brian Allen said.
The company said its herders come from around the world and are compensated through a combination of salary, housing and other benefits.
However, a provision in a new state law requires goat herders to be paid on a 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week hourly basis rather than through the current monthly salary system. Sheep herders are exempt from the requirement.
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According to the company, the change would sharply increase labor costs.
"It takes our wages from $64,000 up to $240,000 a year," Allen said.
The company said it cannot absorb those costs and warned that it would have to lay off its three goat herders if the law remains unchanged.
Without herders, these goats just can't be properly taken care of, and it will force companies to have to get rid of them.
One such group in Red Bluff said these proposed changes will lead to a grim outlook for their animals.
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"We will effectively sell these goats to slaughter, and we will go out of business and probably file bankruptcy on this business and be done with it in the state of California," Western Grazers owner Tim Arrowsmith said.
Allen said his family-owned business, which has operated in the Bay Area for decades, could face a similar fate if lawmakers do not modify the law.
"We haven't got there yet. I don't want to get there. We're hoping that, like I said, that this issue will be taken up in the traveling session of the state legislature and it'll get resolved," Allen said.
The California Legislature has until Aug. 31 to make changes.
Allen said that without a correction, goat grazing operations, herders and communities that rely on vegetation management services could face significant consequences.