Sudanese goat marriage incident

Rose was a goat from the Hai Malakal suburb of Juba, the capital of South Sudan province of Sudan, who became an internet phenomenon when Charles Tombe, a local man, was caught by the goat's owner, a Mr. Alifi, having sex with the goat, and took him to the village elders.

The village council determined that Tombe should 'marry' the goat, and pay a 15,000 dinar dowry (approximately US$ 50).[1] The goat apparently acquired the name Rose after its international fame. It is unknown whether Mr. Tombe continued to have intercourse with the animal after their 'marriage', although as the animal had one kid (goat), and cross-species reproduction between goats and humans is impossible, it is clear that the goat was not monagamous to Mr. Tombe.

The story, first published on 24 February 2006 on the BBC website, attracted massive attention, with the story being republished on numerous newspapers, blogs and other websites.[2] Even a year after publishing, the story was consistently in the top 10 of the BBC's most-emailed articles, with many visitors to the BBC news site finding the tale amusing and passing it onto friends. The story received over 100,000 hits on five successive days, long after its original publication, and the story was read by millions of people. The BBC, astonished that the story was consistently one of the most popular on the site over a period of many months, wondered if there was a campaign to keep the goat sex tale at the top of its rankings; however, following an investigation by its senior software engineer Gareth Owen determined that the demand was genuine. [3]

On May 3 2007 it was reported that the goat had died, having choked on a plastic bag.[4] The BBC honoured the animal with a mock obituary.[5] News of the death was also reported in many other media sources, including The Times,[6] Daily Mail,[7] and Fox News.[8]