[2] Sister Paula Mary Turnbull, a local artist known as the "welding nun", was appointed to the expo's Visual Arts Advisory Committee in 1972.

[3] Following the fair's ecology theme, Turnbull designed a sculpture[a] that would encourage children to help keep the fairgrounds free of litter[1] and teach them a lesson in cleanliness.

"[1] As a work of interactive art,[8] the sculpture features an internal vacuum mechanism capable of sucking up small pieces of garbage through the goat's mouth, allowing users to "feed" it.

[1] The roughly 200-pound (91 kg) sculpture[1] was installed in a "Goat Grotto" made from basalt located just east of the Looff Carrousel along the southern edge of the park.

[3] The original display at the fair included a tape recording of a voice saying, in part, "please feed me, I am hungry", that would play as people passed by.

William Stimson, writing in the Spokane Chronicle's "EXPOsitor" column, summed up the arguments of the critics thusly: These people say the idea that goats eat cans, glass, odds, ends and whatnot is low myth.

[13]As a compromise with the dairy farmers, the Expo '74 organizers installed a sign touting goats' milk production capabilities when fed a proper diet of the "finest of hays and grains".

In a letter to the editor, A.A. Sellen decried the situation, addressing Hollister, writing "You have literally taken candy from children, robbing them, also, of a chance to learn a valuable cleanliness lesson painlessly.

Children were observed carrying garbage from nearby cans to feed to the goat, and one was "rumored to have hoarded trash at home and brought it with him to the fair".

At one point, the sculpture's legs had to be cut off so that the goat could be flipped over for an "internal enlargement" that a visiting nursing executive described as "practically a resection".

[24] A local brewery called Iron Goat Brewing was named for the sculpture and features beers such as Garbage Pale Ale and Head Butt IPA.

[20] At the celebration, the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department estimated that the Garbage Goat had "eaten" over 14,000 cubic yards of litter.

In 2002, Kennewick, Washington, unveiled its own "Billy the Garbage Goat" with plans to install the sculpture at Columbia Park next to the Playground of Dreams.