GENEROUS residents have come together to raise £500 to help pay the vet bills for an East Cliff goat with a broken leg.

Tom the goat, while playing with another of the herd, suffered a fractured leg.

Determined to give Tom the best chance of recovery, and to avoid him being put down, owner Mark Jackson called on the public’s help to finance the vet bills.

Read more: Bournemouth East Cliff Goat dies after eating hedge cuttings

And after just a few weeks, the target of £500, which would cover a portion of the bills, has been met.

Bournemouth Echo:

Mark said: “Tom had a bit of a ding-dong with one of the other goats. He was having a go with a goat that was a little too big for him and he broke his leg above the knee cap.

“It’s going to be around £1,000, if not more in total, so we thought we’d set up a Just Giving page to help Tom out so we didn’t have to put him down as normally that would be the first port of call for livestock animals.

“He’s had a good recovery, he is now standing on the leg, walking around very slowly and he should come back to full health with a little bit less movement.

“We have taken him off the cliff to allow him to rest and recuperate.”

Read more: The goats of Bournemouth: How have the cliff's residents been grazing?

Mark said the goats’ welfare comes out of his own pocket and he was very grateful for the support of the public.

He added: “Thank you very much to everyone, it’s greatly appreciated. We’re very grateful for all the help.

“We want to give five to seven weeks for his leg to heal, then we will make an assessment for what happens next.

“He may become a goat around the house if he can’t go back onto the cliff but if we do another nativity he will be able to do that, he loves human contact.

“It was just one of those things, goats doing what goats do, it wasn’t malicious.”

Mark said after the incident, the two goats were keeping each other warm. He said Tom is now pushing off his injured leg and showing signs of improvement.