Though it can certainly afford the finest in mechanical lawn mowing technology, Google has turned to a team of goats to tend the fields around its offices.
“At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard,” the latest entry on the official Google blog reads.
“This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we’ve rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we’re not ‘kidding’).”
Despite the horrible pun, Google’s plan seems sound. A team of 200 goats, a single border collie for herding and a week of idle time is all it takes to keep the company’s grounds green and nicely coiffed.
Of course, that presumes none of Google’s employees are now spending their days attempting to spook the goats into fainting. Coding search engines and webmail servers is fun, but terrifying adorable, demon-eyed livestock is an irresistible temptation.
Published: May 4, 2009 10:33 pm