Sudanese goat marriage incident

Rose was a goat from the Hai Malakal suburb of Juba, the capital of the Sudanese region of South 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. Alifi took Tombe to the village elders, who 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, and cross-species reproduction between goats and humans is impossible, it is clear that the goat was not faithful to Mr. Tombe.

The story, first published on 24 February 2006 on the BBC website, attracted massive attention and was republished on numerous newspapers, blogs and other websites [2]. Even a year after publication, the story was consistently among the BBC's 10 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 was read by millions of people. The BBC, astonished at this popularity, wondered if there was a campaign to keep the tale at the top of its rankings; however, an investigation by its senior software engineer, Gareth Owen, determined that the demand was genuine [3].

Death

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]. The death was also reported in many other news outlets, including The Times [6], the Daily Mail [7], and Fox News [8].