Dear Capfka: if feral goats won't eat it, it must be pretty bad. A hundred years ago, mothers in New England used to hang asafoetid around kids necks as a talisman to protect them against childhood diseases.
asafetida or asafoetida
n.
5ME < ML asa (< Pers aza, gum) + L foetida, fem. of foetidus, FETID6 a bad-smelling gum resin obtained from various Asiatic plants (genus Ferula) of the umbel family: it was formerly used to treat some illnesses or, in folk medicine, to repel disease