A devoted pet owner has built a 3m (10ft) tower to accommodate his South African goats as he thought they were pining for their natural hilly habitat.
Most animals are happy with a squeaky toy or some outdoor space but this takes pampering your pet to new heights.
Charles Back created the tower in his garden – and claimed it improved the goats’ quality of life.
The 55-year-old said: ‘People with goats aren’t usually that worried about providing their animals access to height but I think it’s necessary. The goats love the tower.’
Mr Back, who runs a vineyard and cheesery near Paarl, in the Western Cape, bought the goats to create a new range of cheese in 1981.
He built the ‘mountain’ after his parents saw a similar thing while on holiday in Portugal.
In the years since, the tower has inspired a tipple called ‘Goats do Roam’ and pictures of it have appeared on websites around the world.
‘People must find it funny,’ Mr Back said. ‘I know it is pretty unorthodox.’
The brick tower has separate ‘rooms’ for the animals, accessed by a spiral wooden staircase. Mr Back’s creation has also sparked something of a craze, with towers now in Illinois, Memphis and Norway.
