Goats

The Goats at Sally Palmer's farm are discovered in acute distress: most are down, unconscious or dead, while the few still standing are weak and emaciated. Their condition gives physical weight to the absence of care at the farm and leads to an urgent effort to get them water and veterinary help.

Discovery and Immediate Care

David Hunter finds the paddock nearly stripped of grass and its water trough completely dry. A hose lies beside it; he hangs it over the trough and traces it back to a stand-pipe, then turns on the water. One or two of the Goats totter over to drink. He intends to call the police and then summon the vet, but Manham's patchy mobile reception delays the call until he has moved away from the paddock.

Extent of the Neglect

When the vet attends, about half of the Goats are already dead, and a couple of the others have to be put down. The vet judges it remarkable that any survived: they must have gone for a couple of weeks without food or water, and another day or two would have been fatal. The initial sight of a few living animals among the prone bodies thus develops into a clearer measure of the crisis: the dry trough and exhausted pasture record prolonged deprivation, not a brief interruption in their care.

Narrative Significance

The Goats' condition establishes an immediate, practical consequence of the abandonment at Sally Palmer's farm, separate from the investigation's search for clues. Their need for water prompts David Hunter to act before he can contact anyone, while the vet's assessment later confirms the duration and severity of their neglect. That some survive, despite how close they are to dying, makes their rescue a limited but tangible counterpoint to the harm surrounding the farm.