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A friend of a friend has a goat that is especially fond of poison  
ivy.  She lends it out to people who want to clear poison ivy out of  
brush, since it will selectively eat mostly poison ivy when it has  
the option.  I don't think poison ivy bothers most goats.

Ginda

On 7/11/06, Stephen Sadler <Docshiva@docshiva.org> wrote:
> Interesting.  Here we have poison oak, which the goats eat with  
> impunity
> and, apparently, immunity.  No immunity for the people who drink  
> the milk -
> you just have to wait until it's out of the goats' system.
>
> You are right that any animal is trainable, and people do train  
> their goats;
> but training their eating habits away seems much more difficult  
> than penning
> them and having attractive food within the pen.
>
> Stephen Sadler
> USDA 9, AHS heat zone 8,
> Sacramento CA - Mediterranean climate
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Nate
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 10:44 AM
> To: North American Fruit Explorers
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fruit Tree and goat care
>
> One time we had a goat who got loose from the tree where we had it
> tied up too. It ended up eating some poison ivy (or some other
> poisonous shrub) and never did again eat any more foilage. Moral of
> the story, goats can be trained, even by themselves.