The Story of the Transgenic Goats (continued)

A while ago I wrote about some wonderful transgenic goats that produce spider silk stronger than steel. (Original post here).

The company that produced the goats, Nexia Biotechnologies, was concentrating on developing materials for space elevators. Needless to say, the market today is somewhat limited and before long the goats found themselves without much of a future.

The world is smaller than you think. At a recent Air Force Office of Scientific Research program review I attended, I met the program manager who provided some of the resources (genes, funding, whatever) that went into making the goats in the first place. He told me a story of learning that the goats were homeless - in Canada - and then sending a small team over to take custody of the goats and bring them to the US.

US law requires live animals brought into the country to be branded with the country of origin, so the team branded the goats with a big letter C. They were promptly arrested.

It is illegal in Canada to brand animals, where it is considered cruel.

How the team and the goats got out of jail and over the border I don't know. But I can report that the transgenic goats are now happily living at the University of Montana where they being studied. Stay tuned for further adventures!