Harry Styles made his internet debut when he was found wandering a property on Forbidden Plateau Road. (Provided by Roslyn Pretty)

A goat named Harry Styles has been making waves online, after a member of a Comox Valley community Facebook group posted about the goat after finding him wandering on her property. The post was looking for the goat’s owner, but suspecting he had been dumped, said that if no one came forward in a few days she would be finding him a new home, either until the original owners came forward, or permanently.

When a second post went up that Harry Styles still wasn’t claimed, Roslyn Pretty, a farmhand from Merville, jumped at the opportunity to give the lost goat a safe home with her own small herd of pet goats.

“I was immediately like, ‘oh my gosh, I will take him.’ If someone still comes forward, great. If no one does, you know, I can give him a great loving home,” Roslyn Pretty told CHLY and DIG FM.

Pretty said that while he is still timid, a trait she has noticed with her other rescued goat, Harry Styles has settled in well with her herd of doe.

Harry Styles is a ladies’ man, already off on the right hoof with the female goats in the herd. (Provided by Roslyn Pretty)

“When I picked him up, obviously you know he's been through a lot, he was a little bit standoffish, a little bit timid, he still kind of is. When I brought him home, my girls that I have, they were like, ‘oh my gosh, who is this handsome devil?’ They absolutely loved him, welcomed him right into the herd. Usually with goats, they kind of fuss and they fight, but with him it was like [it was] meant to be, like they just welcomed him right into the barn.”

The wee charmer Harry Styles was given his name by the community member who found him:

“He's got these amazing bangs and so I guess she thought, ‘oh, Harry Styles!’ So everyone knows him as Harry Styles. I was gonna rename him, but so many people know him as Harry Styles that I didn't wanna change that because so many people know about him now that I think if I was to change his name, it just wouldn't suit. So Harry Styles is what he is gonna stick with, and yeah, he seems to love it so. [It] suits him,” Pretty said.

True to his name, Harry Styles has plenty of adoring fans and is already a local internet sensation:

“I made him an Instagram account yesterday, and it has blown up. It still is. People are following him, he’s already got I think over 300 followers, which is crazy 'cause you know, a lot of people do make accounts for goats and stuff and they might get a hundred followers or something like that. But for him, just so many people love him that they're going nuts,” she said.

Pretty didn’t choose the social media manager life, the social media manager life chose her:

“And you know what, I wasn't planning on making any social media for him, but people were like, you know, get him an Instagram, get him a Facebook, like we wanna see updates on him. And I was like, 'okay, okay, okay!' So I'm out there trying to make as many things for him as I can, because people are just going nuts about him. Yeah, he’s gonna be his own little– famous little goat,” Pretty said.

Harry Styles may have been dumped by his previous owners, but Pretty is determined to give him a loving life from now on.

“He's definitely not a burden. I love him. He is gonna come around, he'll be friendly, and right now he is still a little bit timid, so it's harder to get closer videos and photos of him and stuff, but he'll come around I think,” she said.

Fans online have already been asking for “meet and greets” with Harry Styles, and Pretty is hoping to get him out into the community to socialize with people, and be shown “all the love he deserves.” Pretty and her partner take their other goats out for hikes, and they look forward to including Harry Styles as he becomes more comfortable.

After a visit to the vet, Pretty has a theory about why the goat may have been abandoned in the first place. When the vet went to castrate him, they found Harry Styles has cryptorchidism, meaning his testicles never descended. If the original owners had hoped to use Harry Styles for breeding, this could have been an incentive to get rid of him. Pretty doesn’t want her herd of females getting pregnant, so is content with this development and happy with the vet’s report of good health.

Pretty has also heard from someone claiming to be Harry Styles’ breeder, who says she recognized him in an update Pretty shared to the community Facebook group. If Harry Styles is the goat she believes him to be, he was originally named Ace, and the only cryptorchid this breeder had ever produced. The breeder reached out to the family she sold Ace to, but had received no reply as of the time of recording, so the mystery of Harry Styles’ origin is still unresolved.

To keep up with the goat’s adventures online, he can be followed on Instagram @harrystyles_thevalleygoat or added as a friend on Facebook at Harry Styles The Comox Valley Goat.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with DIG FM.