Viral ‘Goat’ Videographer Uses Platform To Fight Hunger

SAN JOSE, CA — A South Bay man with the opportunity to make a quick buck from his newfound social media celebrity status is using his platform to help those in need.

I’m dead When I got back from the store all the goats had broken through the fence and were recking havoc on our street

This is the craziest thing to happen all quarantine pic.twitter.com/Hc7XpuiBdT
— Zach Roelands (@zach_roelands) May 13, 2020

Zach Roelands, who filmed the viral video of a herd of about 200 goats storming his residential San Jose neighborhood last week, is using his Andy Warhol moment to help raise money for a national anti-hunger campaign.

The 23-year-old recent San Jose State grad has linked a Feeding America fundraising drive to his Twitter profile page.

“If you’re here b/c of the goats please consider donating to help feed those in need: http://help.feedingamerica.org/site/TR?px=542,” his Twitter profile says.

Zach Roelands’ goat stampede video had been viewed on Twitter more than 4.4 million times and his fundraiser had raised more than $5,800 as of Monday afternoon.

“I’ve seen a lot of people post their SoundCloud or Venmo links below viral tweets and think that’s getting old and kinda lame,” Roelands told Patch.

“I decided to use the popularity of the video to support a better cause. I chose feeding America because it actually goes to help other people.”

Roelands happened to be outside at around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday evening when he saw the goats running wild through the streets of his quiet South Bay neighborhood.

The herd escaped from behind a hill near his home after a goat who was eating a flower somehow tapped an electric fence, damaging a circuit that the gates, NBC Bay Area reports.

The goats were kept to help clear brush after his family’s home caught fire, Zach’s father Terry Roelands told NBC Bay Area.

“I had just gotten back from the store and there was just a lot of noise in the street,” Roelands said.

“Obviously we were super surprised to see them in the street. We noticed later they had broken through our neighbors back fence and from there made their way out to the front street.”

Zach Roelands joked to his mother that “we were going to be famous,” but about 45 minutes later after dinner, crickets.

“After dinner I checked and was only at 1 retweet and 3 likes so I kind of forgot about it,” Roelands said.

Later that evening he got a call from NBC Bay Area requesting permission to use his video.

“I said yes and checked my tweet and it had hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes,” Roelands said.

Roelands tweeted of the goat stampede “This is the craziest thing to happen all quarantine,” but he never expected it to get the attention it received.

Roelands said he plans on pursuing a career in real estate and hopes to purchase his first property within a year.

But for now he’s investing in those less fortunate through his anti-hunger campaign.

Roelands said he selected Feeding America because it’s a well-known charity that he believed people would be comfortable giving to.

“Especially now with so many people out of work, you never know who could really use the food,” Roelands said.