Leftover Christmas trees become tasty snacks for hungry goats at Gateshead farm

Two goats in Gateshead have been answering the age old question of how to dispose of Christmas trees after the festive period - by eating them!

Every year, around 8 million trees are thrown away after Christmas. Most of them are chipped and turned into compost, but Sooty and Sweep are giving these ones a quicker end.

The animals are part of a social enterprise group for young people which is now receiving Christmas trees from far and wide.

The trees contain essential vitamins for the goats at a time when there is little foliage around.

Director of Birkheads Wild Community Interest Company, Fiona O'Connor, told ITV News Tyne Tees: "Christmas trees are full of vitamin C so there's lots of green goodness. It's like their vegetables when in the winter, there's not that much around. There's no other leaves on the trees.

"The bit they love the most is the bark, so they've stripped all the bark off the trees they've had so far.

"It is recycling them, because we will us their poo to go on the fruit and veg in the spring, so it's going all the way back into the land, then back into our food."

Fiona added, "I'm really surprised at how popular they are and how much people have wanted to drop their trees off to recycle them if it means the goats are getting to eat them."