Jon Lien and the Infamous Dairy Goat Cooperative

I first met Jon Lien in what my children now refer to as my “hippy phase.” Jon worked just around the corner from me in the so-called “temporary buildings” at MUN in the ’70s, which seemed less and less temporary every year–Jon teaching in the Psychology Department and me in Anthropology. Our initial point of interaction, however, was not the academic life, but dairy goats. Jon and I had spoken many times about the need to “reinvigorate” the Newfoundland goat population with some thorougbred dairy goats, fully adapted–as we imagined it–for the rough and ready Newfy terrain and marginal pastures.

With characteristic zeal, Jon quickly gathered a group of 7 or 8 other goat afficionados, none of whom (with the exception of Jon) had ever had any serious experience with these most ornery of creatures. Next thing we knew, Jon was phoning us from the Toronto Winter Fair with the news that he had located a woman who wanted to sell an entire herd of Saanen goats! No sooner said than done: Not only did Jon manage to construct a series of “goat containers” somewhere near the airport, but single-handedly got them on-board an Air Canada cargo flight and even managed to sit with the pilots en route. Talking about goats, no doubt.

Did I mention that Jon had just been released from hospital after an operation on a collapsed lung?!

The goats arrived safe and sound, and the rest is history. The Newfoundland Dairy Goat Cooperative was formed by unanimous vote of its founding members, and Jon as usual helped us through the initial husbanding experience–learning to feed, milk, and generally care for a dispersed band of female goats and one very uppity buck goat who–we discovered several months later–had slipped through Jon’s sturdily-made container and managed to impregnate one of the females, somewhere over Eastern Canada (So we had two more goats than we had bargained for!).

Indeed, Jon went further than that: When we needed to “fix” our first offspring–a young male goat destined to be the Sunday roast–Jon arrived at our house, scalpel and sutures in hand, and did the dirty deed. Talk about skill! Talk about dedication!

Though it is a long time ago and my memory of subsequent events is fading, I still think of these remarkable incidents and of Jon’s incredible focus and perseverance throughout. My own path has taken me a long way from the Rock, to a much drier and less hospitable land, but whenever I see a goat on the side of the road–or more often, blocking the road–as I travel through the rural areas of Botswana, I actually do think of the infamous Dairy Goat Cooperative and of the man who helped us found it and showed us the importance of animals, both wild and domesticated, in our lives.

This post was submitted by Geoff Stiles.